CHEBOYGAN — As the two-year anniversary of the fire that eventually shut down the Great Lakes Tissue/Tissue Depot paper mill approaches, Cheboygan City Manager Dan Sabolsky wants to explore condemnation proceedings for the facility.
The mill, which has Cheboygan River frontage on Main Street, has been closed since a Sept. 13, 2023 blaze destroyed a warehouse located across the street.
“We have been citing them for blight violations for quite a time. We stopped for a period when the (Cheboygan Commons) project looked like it was going forward,” Sabolsky told city council at their Aug. 12 meeting.
Cheboygan Commons is a proposed $50 million mixed-use development for the 14-acre site that has been put on hold.
Sabolsky has sent an email to Cheboygan County Administrator Jeff Lawson and county building inspector Matt Cronk requesting a meeting on the issue.
“You can condemn a building through a building code official, through the health department or a licensed fire inspector. So, if we want to condemn that or really push it hard, it will need a partnership between the city and the county,” Sabolsky said.
Daniel Rosenbaum is an associate professor at Michigan State University’s law school and said there are three main legal avenues to condemn a building in the state. One is through eminent domain, which allows government bodies to acquire private property for public uses after just compensation has been paid to the property owners.
Then there is nusiance and abatement.
“Nuisance is a property condition that interferes with the properties around it,” Rosenbaum said. “A government agency can sue a private property for causing a nuisance to the neighborhood and use the judicial process to try to get the owner to mitigate or fix the nuisance. In some jurisdictions, that process can end with a court awarding property ownership to the government.”
Finally, under Michigan housing law there is a process for citing dangerous buildings by inspecting and ticketing the owner.
“Property owners can be forced to correct issues or pay money to correct conditions that are deemed dangerous, usually by a building inspector,” said Rosenbaum.
In some jurisdictions, that process can end with a government entity or agency taking a property. All of the condemnation processes will go through the judicial system in venues like a circuit court, Rosenbaum added.
Developer Bob Pulte, who is leading the Cheboygan Commons project, provided this response to Sabolsky’s condemnation suggestion: “Our team understands that tools exist for local officials to address problem properties. These sites continuing to decline worries a lot of us who call Cheboygan our home.”
Sharen Lange, project manager for Cheboygan Commons, added that “It’s reasonable to say the state of these abandoned sites are only getting worse, making environmental remediation and redevelopment more difficult and costly.”
“The city of Cheboygan should be congratulated for working hard to handle the increased threats to public health and safety this season,” she said. “From break-ins, to vandalism, to sidewalk safety, to working alongside state and federal agencies on these eyesore locations with significant blight and debris. It has always been a complex and difficult problem, made even more so every day that goes by.”
Thomas Homco of Hom Paper XI, LLC owns the building and the land. He provided this statement to the Daily Tribune:
“All issues that we understand were holding up the development have been addressed. The lawsuit has been settled and Hom Paper XI, LLC, the owner of the site, agreed to pay all liens against the property at the closing of the sale to the developer. We have been made aware of no other issues to prevent the project from moving forward. Unfortunately, the initial developer has disengaged. We are hopeful that the project will soon be back on track, and this gateway project will make the community proud.
“We disagree with Mr. Sabolsky’s comments regarding blight. The property has been secured, cameras are being installed, and there are ongoing efforts to clean up the site. Potentially combustible materials have been removed from the interior of the building and we have removed debris dumped in the parking lot by others. We provided access to the site to the DNR and its contractor to rebuild the Cheboygan locks. When assistance was requested to maintain water levels, we sent personnel to assist the county. We have been working with consultants to make sure any environmental issues are addressed. We are doing all of this without a paying tenant. Mr. Sabolsky’s statements about the blight are disappointing, and we do not understand why he has taken the position he has regarding the proposed project,” said the statement.
— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan city manager exploring options for property condemnation at former paper mill
Reporting by Paul Welitzkin, Cheboygan Daily Tribune / Cheboygan Daily Tribune
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