'Loaf' delays, troubles continue
April 5, 2007
http://www.leelanaunews.com/editorial.php?id=2940Sugar Loaf Resort owner Kate Wickstrom said this week she wasn't aware
that Cleveland Township officials have been ready and are waiting for
her to submit formal plans to redevelop and reopen the defunct ski
resort.
Wickstrom said Tuesday that she also wasn't aware that Sugar Loaf
Service Company – which is responsible for providing sewer service to
the resort – last week filed a lien against the resort for some
$94,851 plus interest that the company claims she owes.
Later Tuesday, Wickstrom's lawyer, Joe Quandt of Traverse City, said
that "unless the Sugar Loaf Service Company discharges its lien
immediately, we will file suit."
Quandt added that neither he nor his client have received "official
word" from Cleveland Township that a zoning ordinance amendment
affecting Sugar Loaf Resort was officially enacted last month, or that
the township's planning commission has been waiting for Wickstrom to
submit Planned Unit Development (PUD) plans for the resort.
Last week marked the second anniversary of Wickstrom's acquisition of
Sugar Loaf Resort from a corporate entity known as S.L. 2002 – a
corporation that was apparently formed by many of the same people who
controlled another corporation that owned the resort, Pacific XIX,
headed by convicted felon Remo Polselli.
Polselli stepped away from the Sugar Loaf property after he was
convicted of felony tax evasion in connection with one of his downstate
properties and subsequently served a sentence in federal prison.
According to documents available at the Leelanau County Register of
Deeds office in Leland, S.L. 2002 loaned Wickstrom some $5,776,000 to
purchase the resort in 2005, although publicly available mortgage
documents do not specify how Wickstrom is expected to pay off the loan.
In May 2006, more than a year after she acquired Sugar Loaf Resort,
Wickstrom unveiled preliminary, conceptual plans to turn the resort into
a year-round "board sports" mecca including skiing, snowboarding and
skateboarding. Her preliminary plans included several new housing
developments on the 352-acre property.
At the time, Wickstrom asked that the Cleveland Township zoning
ordinance be amended to accommodate her plans. The Cleveland Township
Planning Commission then spent the next six months drafting new zoning
ordinance language that would allow Wickstrom to submit plans for a
Planned Unit
Development at Sugar Loaf in phases rather than all at once.
The Cleveland Township Board adopted the zoning ordinance amendment in
January. However, township activist Charles J. Ryant Jr. began
circulating a petition calling for a township-wide vote on whether the
zoning ordinance amendment should be adopted. However, Ryant failed to
secure the required 88 signatures on his petition within 30 days and did
not file for an extension.
As a result, the zoning ordinance amendment automatically went into
effect last month. Ryant died March 23 at the age of 86.
Cleveland Township supervisor Tim Stein said he contacted Wickstrom
immediately after Ryant indicated he planned to circulate a petition,
and that the zoning ordinance amendment would go into effect within 30
days if Ryant failed to obtain the required signatures.
Stein said that Wickstrom thanked him for the information, and asked him
to inform Quandt as well.
"I left Ms. Wickstrom's attorney a voice mail message explaining how
this process works," Stein said. "How this process works is a matter of
state law. We've publicly announced a couple of times that the text
amendment had gone into effect, and it's no secret that Charlie Ryant
died. I just don't understand what Kate Wickstrom and her lawyer can be
thinking," Stein said.
"The last word I got from the township regarding the zoning ordinance
amendment sometime in January was,
'We'll keep you posted,'" Quandt said. "I haven't heard anything since,"
he said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Sugar Loaf Service Company on March 26 filed a $94,851 lien
against Sugar Loaf Resort for "unpaid user fees" for sewage treatment.
According to documents on file at the courthouse in Leland, the fees
cover the period March 1, 2005 through Feb. 1, 2006 when sewer service
to the resort was terminated.
Mike Waugh, the president of Sugar Loaf Service Company, told the
Enterprise this week that his company "didn't have a choice" but to file
the lien.
"Development plans at Sugar Loaf have clearly been at a standstill,"
Waugh said.
"The service company has 97 other users of the sewer system. We have
some serious cash flow problems if the resort doesn't pay."
Wickstrom and her attorney, however, have long asserted that Sugar Loaf
Resort does not owe Sugar Loaf Service Company any money.
Sugar Loaf Resort has been closed for skiing since March 2000.