BLUE LAKE FINE ARTS CAMP V BLUE LAKE TWP ZONING BD OF APPEALS
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
BLUE LAKE FINE ARTS CAMP,
UNPUBLISHED
March 22, 2007
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v
BLUE LAKE TOWNSHIP ZONING BOARD OF
APPEALS, THE FORREST J. HARRIS TRUST,
and WAYNE HARRIS,
No. 265782
Muskegon Circuit Court
LC No. 03-042243-AV
Defendants-Appellees.
Before: O’Connell, P.J., and Murray and Davis, JJ.
MURRAY, J. (concurring).
I concur in the lead opinion’s decision to reverse the trial court order and remand this
matter to the Blue Lake Township Zoning Board of Appeals for consideration of whether the use
variances should be granted to the Harris’s under § 16.3(c)(3) of the Blue Lake Township zoning
ordinance and MCL 125.293. See also Dowek v Oxford Twp, 233 Mich App 62, 70; 592 NW2d
724 (1998). A remand is necessary because under both the statute and the ordinance it is the
township’s Zoning Board of Appeals that has given the discretionary authority to “vary or
modify” any zoning ordinance in order to prevent unnecessary hardship. MCL 125.293
(repealed by PA 2006, No. 110, § 702, eff July 1, 2006, but in effect at the time the proceedings
that lead to this appeal took place). Thus, although I believe, as did the trial court, that the
findings by the Zoning Board of Appeals would more than support a granting of a use variance
under MCL 125.293 and § 16.3(c)(3), it is the duty of the Township Zoning Board of Appeals to
do so. In my view, if the Zoning Board of Appeals reaches a conclusion that the variance should
be granted under the statute and ordinance, there would be adequate factual support in the record
to do so. If that is the case, one would hope it would put an end to this case which is now
suffering its fourth remand to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
/s/ Christopher M. Murray
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