Sixth Circuit sides with township in developer’s building permit battle
The property had no public sewer access. That meant GSL needed a septic permit from the Oakland County Health Division before construction could begin – but the county had denied an earlier application for the same property around 2018 and said it would not reconsider until the developer combined the parcel with an adjacent lot. As of early 2021, GSL still had not applied to do so.
The township preliminarily approved the site plan in January 2021 but its code required developers to “secure all necessary permits from other agencies as applicable to the project” before building. Lyon Township executed a hold-harmless agreement in March to let plan review proceed. Then in April, the township supervisor directed staff not to issue permits until the sewage question was resolved. A second proposed agreement – requiring GSL to extend the public sewer at its own cost if the septic permit fell through – went unsigned. The Moba deadline came and went. The lease was terminated.
GSL’s equal-protection claim rested on one comparator: SW North America, which received a building permit from the township around 2017 without a septic permit in hand. The township conceded that was a mistake by a building coordinator who no longer worked there. One bent rule four years earlier, the court held, did not strip the township of a rational basis for enforcing it now.
On due process, the court applied Michigan law requiring both a lawful permit and “construction work of a substantial character” on the property before a vested interest exists. GSL had neither. Even assuming permits issued in March 2021, no construction happened before the reversal in April.
The First Amendment claim turned on an email a GSL representative sent to the entire township board pressing for faster action. The township’s attorney responded that emailing the full board risked violating Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. The court found the restriction content-neutral, narrowly tailored, and leaving open other channels of communication.
