KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A Michigan family that has held onto its lakeside cottage for generations may finally have to hand over the keys – not because they stopped paying their taxes or decided to sell, but because Kalamazoo County wants the property. And the courts say the county can take it.
Family Was There Before the Park
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Sept. 11 that Kalamazoo County can use eminent domain to acquire the one-third-acre property along Gourdneck Lake, which is surrounded on three sides by Prairie View County Park.
The family owned the property before the park existed. Today, the cottage is essentially a privately owned island within the park, with the lake on its fourth side.
County Parks Director David Rachowicz testified that the private parcel complicates park management, road maintenance, funding applications and efforts to restore the lakefront to a natural condition.
The county does not have a specific development planned for the site. The courts nevertheless concluded that incorporating it into the public park is sufficient to establish a public use.
A Fight More Than 60 Years Old
The county’s effort to obtain the property isn’t new.
In 1962, Kalamazoo County pursued a condemnation case against the owners, who wanted to keep their land. The dispute ended with a 1963 written agreement in which the county dropped the condemnation while establishing rules involving access, roads, utilities and use of the surrounding park.
The agreement also gave the county the first option to purchase the property while preserving the owners’ access and utility rights – effectively allowing the cottage to remain privately owned as the county developed the park around it.
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Because the property stayed in the family, the agreement raises questions about which rights passed to the descendants along with the land – and remain enforceable today.
County Tries Again
In 2022, county commissioners voted to pursue the property by passing a resolution to condemn the property. This happened after the last original signatory died in 2019. The county offered the family $320,000, but the family declined.
Kalamazoo County Circuit Court ruled in 2023 that the county could force the sale through eminent domain. The family appealed, but the Court of Appeals affirmed that decision.
The county says acquiring the last privately owned parcel would complete the Prairie View County Park project, simplify park management and allow the lakefront to eventually return to a natural condition.
Under eminent domain, the owners are entitled to just compensation. But the ruling means that after more than six decades – and despite an earlier agreement that allowed the family to keep the property – the county can ultimately acquire the cottage whether the family wants to sell it or not.
It remains unclear whether the owners will ask the Michigan Supreme Court to review the case.
