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In April developer Stacy Fox submitted a preliminary site plan calling for eight condominiums on about three acres abutting Lake Huron on Dallas Street. She proposed that plan after the planning commission rejected her proposal to build a cluster of small cottages around an existing log cabin on the property.

Fox claims the village's then planning consultants reported the cabins would require ordinance variances, but were an attractive alternative to the condo plan.

On May 27 the village council voted 5-2 to table their vote on her project's preliminary plan for 30 days after a long executive session in order to give them time to study the issue. Seventy people appeared to oppose the condo proposal and one submitted petitions in opposition signed by 260 residents.

The petition called for the council to reject the proposal and asked the planning commission to create an ordinance that would define development on beach that built up after the Lexington Harbor was constructed. Sandy beaches build up along the shore to the north of harbors along Lake Huron.

Village Manager Ron Dahlke said the lawsuit was not unexpected.

"I have no comment on it until we see it and have a chance to talk to legal," he stated.

Fox is asking Circuit Court Judge Donald Teeple to:

*Order the village to approve the condo site plan with conditions that was recommended by the village's current planning consultant in its May 1 report.

*Order that all new ordinances and amendments enacted after she submitted her site plan not apply to her development plans.

*Order that all council or planning committee members who have a personal interest in the development be required to abstain from all proceedings regarding the matter.

*Order disclosure of public records upon payment of a reasonable fee, as well as award her reasonable and actual attorney fees.

Fox claims at the December council meeting her cluster plan "was subjected to numerous, well-orchestrated attacks and misstatements by, among others, Planning Commission members (James) Macksay and Greg Jarmolowicz, both of whom have beachfront property located very near the Fox property. At no time did Macksay or Jarmolowicz recuse themselves from the discussion or voting related to the Fox property".

She maintains that the "flurry of new ordinance activity" during this period lead the planning committee to acknowledge on the record that any new ordinances would not apply to her project, which had been in the pipeline since November 2007.

However, the lawsuit claims the matter was tabled in order to "provide additional time for the passage of rules and regulations which will either prohibit or restrict the development of the Fox property".

Further, Fox claims the charge of almost $2,000 is too much for copying documents and 29 cassette tapes of the council and planning commission meetings.

She submitted FOIA requests for minutes of all meetings of the planning commission and village council; materials distributed at or in advance of the meetings, including those submitted by village resident Carolyn Beck; notes taken at the meetings; all notice and correspondence sent or received by the village manager, planning commission or council members regarding the Fox property; reports and investigations regarding the issue; emails to and from those parties; all documents relating to the performance or termination of former village manager Reid Charles and former planning consultants Carlisle Wortman (who worked on the proposal); documents relating to the hiring of the new village planner; and charters, by-laws, policies governing the conduct of the planning commission.