Court rejects review of Green Charter Township’s preliminary injunction

GREEN CHARTER TOWNSHIP – In an Aug. 14 decision, U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering affirmed the preliminary injunction against Green Charter Township in the Gotion lawsuit and denied the township’s motion for a retrial.

The motion to reconsider the injunction is based on two “substantial changes of fact” – namely, that the City of Big Rapids’ water concession no longer exists and that the municipality is granted authority to rezone the Gotion property, the ruling states.

“Neither the repeal of the water concession ordinance nor the adoption of a provisional development plan ordinance by the municipality represent ‘new’ facts that would justify a review or amendment of the interim injunction. Rather, the court has described both circumstances in detail in its opinion and its decision,” the judge explained.

Both circumstances were caused by the municipality itself and the court was not convinced that they constituted a reason to clarify or even annul the decision that the municipality was obliged to comply with the development agreement, the judgment states.

The May injunction against the municipality states: “The court concluded that Gotion was likely to succeed in its claim that the development agreement constituted a valid and binding contract that the municipality had breached.”

The Development Agreement contains a list of conditions and obligations that both Gotion Inc. and Green Charter Township must comply with during the construction and maintenance of Gotion’s planned electric vehicle battery component manufacturing facility in Green Charter Township.

Pursuant to the development agreement, the municipality must assist Gotion Inc. in obtaining any licenses, permits or other governmental approvals necessary to promote and support the project, issue the necessary easement documents to allow access to the property for infrastructure improvements, and coordinate with the Mecosta County Street and Sewer Commission regarding public infrastructure improvements.

Gotion’s commitments include giving priority to local residents in job allocation, limiting traffic congestion on public roads by building a staging area for trucks and tractors on company property, adhering to Dark Sky Design to limit light pollution from the facility, and prohibiting activities that support or promote political views of employees or the community.

“We greatly appreciate the court’s continued affirmation of our position and look forward to working with the community to advance this important project,” said Chuck Thelen, vice president of Gotion Inc. North American Manufacturing, in a press release. “The project will create more than 2,300 good-paying jobs for the families of this region.”

The court’s decision reaffirms the municipality’s commitment to comply with the previously approved development agreement between the municipality and Gotion Inc. while the litigation is pending, the press release said.

Green Charter Township Supervisor Jason Kruse said they would continue to work on the case in its current form.

“At this point, we’re waiting for our attorneys to process the judgment and give us direction on how to proceed,” Kruse said. “We’ve received a temporary restraining order, and as far as I can tell, we simply have to act in accordance with the development agreement. As it stands, the temporary restraining order would probably require us to stick to where the community was when the development agreement was signed.”

Regarding the decision to terminate the water concession agreement with the City of Big Rapids that allowed the city to extend water service to parts of the municipality, Kruse reiterated that the municipality believes the agreement is not relevant to Gotion’s ability to provide water to the site.

“The board has always felt that we are not going to impede the progress of the Gotion project,” Kruse said. “The project is not really dictated by the community itself; it is dictated by their (Gotion’s) ability to move the project forward as they see fit.”

Kruse said the board’s decision to issue its own zoning plans was not to rezone the Gotion property, but rather to ensure the community has a say in any new construction within the community.

“We wanted to make sure we had a say not only in this project but in other projects in our community,” he said. “For example, we saw a large buildup of storage units on Northland Drive and we wish we had been better represented in those decisions. It’s about having a sense of what’s happening in the community.”

He said that the newly established planning commission has already processed several land use planning applications and that these are reported at every council meeting so that everyone understands what is going on in the community.