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"Both our lawyer and our village planner said the way our ordinance reads gives us very little latitude," trustee Elva Mills told the audience at a June 23 meeting. "We did what we felt we must do tonight."

Prior to approval, council met in closed session with Village Attorney David Churchill to consider its options after Wayne County developer Stacy Fox filed a suit against the village for tabling in May its approval of her condo site plan.

Fox claims in her suit that the delay was an attempt to enact ordinances to prevent her proposal from being "grand-fathered" in.

Fox wishes to build eight site condominiums on about three acres abutting Lake Huron on Dallas Street in an area zoned medium density residential.

Controversy erupted because half of the property is accreted beachfront that has accumulated after Lexington Harbor was built. Village residents, particularly lakefront neighbors, protested that the homes would ruin the view and the ecology of the area.

Following the closed session, council members explained that, like it or not, the plan is allowed based on the village's current zoning and its Master Plan.

"Our zoning ordinance was put together by our zoning commission. They recommended this ordinance be approved and it became law," said Trustee William Oldford.

"Now we're sitting here wondering what we should do, so we hire an attorney and a planner to give recommendations. Both said we have to follow the plan that we put into place. We had no choice. None whatsoever."

Oldford admitted that village councils in the past might have been lax for not seeing that an issue like this might come up over accreted beach property.

"If our planning commission digs in and puts some things together, perhaps we can make changes in the future," he said.

Said Trustee Peter Muoio, "I'm disappointed in the past and current performance of our planning commission. They got us into this and they'd better help get us out."

Carolyn Beck, a beachfront neighbor, spearheaded a petition drive urging council to deny the condo plan and direct the planning commission to create an ordinance defining development on accreted beach.

Prior to council vote, she urged council to declare a one-year moratorium on such development until the village could study what it might do to the ecology. She also said Department of Environmental Quality grant money was available to pay for the study.

She reiterated concerns that the development sets and dangerous precedent and that the village must move quickly to pass measures to prevent similar beach development.

"Apparently you have to do this legally. But if there is anything we as a community can do to make this community happy, I'll volunteer. This whole village is in a difficult situation. Just tell us how we can help."