Leelanau County won't sue Leland Township over the status of the county's courthouse property in the township after all — at least not right away.

A split Leelanau County Board of Commissioners decided this week to reverse a recommendation they made last week to sue Leland Township for "quiet title" to a 10,000-square-foot portion of the 2.5-acre Leland courthouse property that was to revert to the township under a 1939 deed.

A disconnect between the two municipal bodies may still delay efforts by the county to sell the Leland property to two local businessmen who plan to redevelop the courthouse campus as a residential neighborhood after the county seat moves to Suttons Bay Township next year. Leland Township had hoped to negotiate with the county over payment for its claim to a portion of the courthouse property and a possible trade of land to accommodate expansion of the township’s adjacent fire hall.

Last week, acting as its executive committee, the county board voted 6-0, with District No. 5 commissioner David Shiflett absent, to recommend that a resolution be adopted to sue Leland Township over the issue in Circuit Court

However, acting at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, the board voted 3-2 against a motion made by District No. 2 commissioner Mark Walter and seconded by District No. 7 commissioner Melinda Lautner to adopt the resolution.

Voting against adoption of the resolution were District No. 1 commissioner Jean Watkoski, District No. 3 commissioner Will Bunek and District No. 6 commissioner Robert Hawley, the county board chairman. Shiflett and District No. 4 commissioner Mary Tonneberger were absent.

“We now need to set up a joint meeting with the township board as soon as possible to discuss what we do next,” Hawley told county administrator David Gill immediately after the vote. Gill indicated he would work with township officials to schedule a meeting.

The county board’s change of heart this week appeared to follow a fast-moving set of events last week. In a memo dated March 12, Gill told Leland Township supervisor Harry Larkin that the county board “is not offering any compensation for the requested Quit Claim Deed” on the property subject to the 1939 agreement, “but feels that the deed would be more beneficial to both units of government than a Quiet Title Action in Circuit Court and the resulting publicity and attorney fees.

“Please let me know how your Board wants to proceed in this matter so we can act accordingly,” Gill wrote.

The Leland Township board held its regular monthly meeting that evening, March 12, and unanimously approved a motion indicating that the township wanted to negotiate the issue with the county.

The following day, March 13, township clerk Jane Keen and Larkin both sent letters to the county indicating that they believed negotiations would be better than a lawsuit, and briefly outlined several proposals.

But Keen’s letter wasn’t received by the county until March 15, and Larkin’s letter didn’t arrive in the county administrator’s in-box until March 16.

The county board executive committee’s recommendation to file suit against Leland Township had already been made the morning of March 13.

“When we made that decision last week,” said Bunek, “I was under the impression that Leland was not interested in negotiating. But now we have letters indicating they are. I think we should sit down with them and try to come to a resolution rather than take it to court and have both of us start paying attorneys.”

Walter noted, however, that the county had been negotiating the issue with Leland Township since July 2005, when county officials drafted a memorandum of agreement that might have resolved the issues. The memorandum never received final approval from either the county or township boards, however.

“If they were serious about negotiating with us, then somebody from Leland Township would be here tonight,” Walter said. “And there’s no reason we can’t adopt this resolution while at the same time sitting down and talking with them about it,” he added. “Court cases are settled out of court at the last minute all the time.”

Lautner, who was also in the minority on this week’s vote, said, “We’ve been placed in some very bad predicaments over the years many times by this township. Backing away from the lawsuit, I believe, will only slow down the process of selling this property. There is a lot of bad history here with Leland Township.”

The would-be purchasers of the Leland courthouse property, R. Gene Kelly and James Varley, have until the first week of April to present a formal purchase agreement to county officials. Verbally, the business partners have offered to buy the property for $2.5 million – just $100,000 below its appraised value – and redevelop it generally in keeping with the wishes of a Leland Township citizen’s committee which has offered suggestions on how the property should be used.