Why Developers Suck

This story is about as local as politics gets. What is atypical is that the community actually won. Of course the story isn't over.

A developer and Family Fare decided they wanted to put a huge grocery story, gas station and office complex on the corner of 7 Mile and the Beltline in Plainfield Township. The site is, and always has been, zoned residential. It's in the Township Master Plan and the developer knew this when he bought the property.

However, like all developers, he assumed the Master Plan and zoning were just minor inconveniences and that when the prospect of a big construction job came up, the Township would roll over and give them whatever they want. Unfortunately, the Plainfield Planning Commission came clearly out against the plan. Then the Township Board (in a complete shocker) voted 4 to 3 to support the PC and reject the re-zoning request. Family Fare's tactics of packing meetings and putting the full-court press on the local government failed - and the community won.

Now the developers are suing the township, saying their property rights are being violated by "arbitrary and capricious" zoning. They are making the classic "taking" argument - that the Township is taking their property by defending its own master pan.

What can I say but fuck 'em. They knew the property was zoned residential and made a bad business decision. No one took anything from them and why should the Township now have to pay legal counsel to defend its right to plan its own growth?

Developers always do this, and I am sick of seeing local governments cave into their self-serving crap. Maybe this is the start of a new trend, where Townships actually stand up for their voters against the developers and corporate interests.