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Cannon Township continually strives to improve the appearance and vitality of our community. One of the goals of our Master Plan is to encourage the redevelopment of the Bostwick Lake Area commercial corridor on Belding Road. An obstacle to that goal is the way part of that area was laid out in a plat for development over 100 years ago.

A "plat" shows the way the owner intends to develop land, with the size and location of lots, streets, and alleys. In the past, the owner could simply record a drawing that dedicated streets and alleys to the public without ever actually building them. In many cases, these streets are never built and are called "paper roads," because they exist only on paper.

The plainview park plat was recorded in 1922. It extends about 600 feet north of Belding Road, between the Acorn Resale Shop and Elmview Avenue. A few homes south of Kitson, with driveways connected to Kitson, are in the plat, but none of the properties north of Kitson are in the plat. As originally laid out, the plat had 67 lots averaging about 50 by 90 feet in size, and nine streets and alleys. The plat never developed that way, and only parts of Elmview, Tulare and Plainview avenues in the plat were ever built.

A few of the alleys in the plat were vacated in the 1960s. Because the remaining "paper roads" in the plat are cutting up the properties and interfering with the redevelopment of this area, the Township has authorized a "vacation" proceeding in Circuit Court to eliminate these unused paper streets. It is necessary to do this to formally eliminate these streets once and for all.

According to the Plat Vacation Statute — part of the Land Division Act — we are required to include all property owners in the plat and certain utilities and other public agencies. State law also requires that we include all property owners outside the plat within 300 feet of any part of the streets or alleys to be vacated, which includes a number of people who live outside the plat on Kitson Drive and other areas around the boundary of the plat. As a result of these requirements, over 50 parties need to be included in the proceeding. The purpose of this is to give these people the right to raise any reasonable objection they might have to the vacation. The streets to be vacated were selected because they do not interfere with anyone’s access to their property, and we hope that everyone served with the complaint will agree.

Shortly after the first of the year, the people in and around the plat will be receiving a formal court complaint in "Township of Cannon v. Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs" by registered mail from the township attorneys, Mika Meyers. If you do not have an objection, you do not need to do anything, and you will be included in a default judgment. That will not affect your property value or make you liable for any payment or cost.

If you have any questions, you can contact Steve Grimm on his cell phone at (616) 822-6895 or by email at sgrimm@cannontwp.org.

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