The latest wrinkle in an as-yet unsuccessful effort to revive Sugar Loaf Resort doesn't involve the current status of a neighboring golf course so much as it involves the recent efforts of well-known Cleveland Township resident and former planning commission chairman Charles J. Ryant Jr.

The octogenarian activist – who has sued the township multiple times in the past decade mostly over alleged Open Meetings Act violations – hopes to circulate a petition for a referendum on a zoning ordinance amendment adopted by the Township Board last month. The amendment would streamline a Planned Unit Development (PUD) approval process for Sugar Loaf.

“The possibility of a referendum is holding up our submition of a PUD plan – and it’s more than a little frustrating,” said resort owner Kate Wickstrom. “While he’s a very knowledgeable guy and everybody appreciates Charlie’s (Ryant’s) input, I just wish he were on our side.”

Meanwhile, an attorney representing owners of the adjacent King’s Challenge Golf Course said this week that little has changed since last month when the Enterprise first reported that the zoning ordinance amendment had been adopted and that the former owners of a neighboring golf course had filed a foreclosure suit against the current owners.

“There’s been some confusion in the press since then over what the foreclosure suit is all about,” said Tom Pezetti, an attorney who represents golf course owners Brian Sculthorp and Ed Fleis.

Sculthorp and Fleis still own the Kings Challenge course, as well as the Sleeping Bear Golf Course and a sewage treatment plant serving Sugar Loaf Resort, plus an additional 150 acres adjacent to the resort.

“The lawsuit is really about the status of a little over six acres of the golf course property that Brian (Sculthorp) and Ed (Fleis) have already bought and paid for,” Pezetti explained. “In the meantime, they have offered to give the Kings Challenge Golf Course back to its former owners because it’s costing them too much to operate with no end in sight to all the issues surrounding Sugar Loaf Resort.”

The foreclosure suit indicated that Sculthorp and Fleis were some $12,500 behind in paying off a land contract they have with the former owner of the golf course and still owe some $27,312 in 2006 summer property taxes. The total amount due for the King’s Challenge Golf Course was just over $1.5 million, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed by Sugar Loaf Ridge Development, a corporation led by John Sills, a Birmingham attorney who was also a co-owner of Sugar Loaf Resort before it was split off from the two golf courses and other properties in the area in 1997.

Sculthorp said this week that although he and Fleis are still legal owners of Kings Challenge, “our plan is to give it back to them (Sills and his corporation) or work out an arrangement with them that would reduce our holding costs significantly.”

Sculthorp said he and his partner planned to meet with attorneys and principals early next month to continue negotiations.

In the meantime, Sculthorp said, the golf pro and manager at Kings Challenge, Chuck Olson, is now working for John Sills.

“I don’t have any idea how this is all going to end up,” Olson told the Enterprise this week. “What I do know for sure is that the Kings Challenge Golf Course will be open for business this spring – it just may be under new ownership.”

Olson formerly managed the Sleeping Bear Golf Course, also owned by Sculthorp and Fleis. But, Olson said, course superintendent Chris Wakeman has taken over day-to-day management responsibilities at the Sleeping Bear Golf Course

“From the customer’s perspective, nothing’s going to change at the golf courses,” Olson said. “But in terms of reuniting the golf course properties with the ski resort – what’s happening now appears to be a step backward rather than a step forward.”

That’s also how Cleveland Township supervisor Tim Stein views Ryant’s recent efforts to delay enactment of a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow “phased” approval of PUD plans for larger projects such as Wickstrom’s effort to redevelop Sugar Loaf Resort.

“I’m really puzzled as to what Mr. Ryant finds wrong with the zoning ordinance amendment,” Stein said. “And frankly, I don’t know where he’s going to find the 88 people he needs willing to sign his petition.”

Ryant said he believes the zoning ordinance amendment does not require developers to make concessions for any advantages they would gain by applying for a PUD rather than submitting a site plan under standard zoning.

“The amendment switches our existing PUD language 180 degrees, and it’s up to developers to state what they will give up compared to what they could get otherwise under the zoning ordinance,” Ryant said. “Besides,” he added, “I personally don’t think Kate Wickstrom is ever going to do anything with Sugar Loaf, really. Maybe somebody else will.”

Asked how his petition drive is going, Ryant responded: “The weather has been such that it’s been hard to get out.”

Stein noted that unless Ryant gathers the required 88 signatures by next week – or files for an extension – the zoning ordinance amendment will go into effect within 30 days.

by Eric Carlson
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