A neighbor of the Timber Shores residential development has filed a lawsuit in the 13th Circuit Court to stop the developers from using a lot in a platted subdivision as a parking area for a beach-side condominium building.

Michael E. Comos and Ellen L. Coon own Lot 2 in the Camp Haven Subdivision in Leelanau Township. Their lot is adjacent to Lot 1, which was purchased by NM Investment Company president Fred Gordon in February 2003. The lot is included in the project’s 455-acre campus and is designated to provide parking for two of 12 waterfront condominium buildings that will be built as part of Phase I of the project.

Through their attorney, Thomas J. McCarthy of Bloomfield Hills, Comos and Coon are asking the court to stop the township from including Lot 1 in the Timber Shores project and prevent the developers from using the lot as a driveway access and parking for the two condominium buildings. The Leelanau Township residents are also seeking the recovery of their costs and attorney fees, plus any additional relief the court deems “just and appropriate.”

In their civil complaint filed in the 13th Circuit Court on Oct. 16, Comos and Coon state that throughout the township Planning Commission’s review of the site plan for Timber Shores, it consistently filed written and verbal objections to including Lot 1 of Camp Haven in the project.

In the civil complaint, McCarthy wrote that the township has violated the state land division act by including Lot 1 within the Timber Shores Planned Unit Development’s boundaries.

“A replat of any part of a recorded subdivision may not be approved or recorded unless proper court action has been taken to vacate the original plat or the specific part thereof,” he wrote in the filing.

McCarthy also states the township zoned the Camp Haven subdivision as Residential 1 (R-1), which requires a minimum lot area of two acres and a lot width of 150 feet. Camp Haven has 14 lots ranging in width from 52 to 104 feet, and all the lots are approximately one acre in size.

He argued that a more appropriate zoning classification for Camp Haven would be Residential 4 (R-4), which has no minimum lot areas or width requirements. R-4 zoning was created by the township specifically for pre-platted subdivisions. Currently, only Cherry Homes Subdivision is zoned R-4.

“Camp Haven Subdivision is a pre-platted subdivision that does not comply with the minimum lot requirements of the R-1 district and has substantially similar dimensions and layout characteristics of the lots in Cherry Homes Subdivision,” McCarthy wrote.

He noted that planned unit developments, like Timber Shores, are allowed in the R-1 district but not R-4, and further claims the township has violated state zoning laws by not having both Cherry Homes and Camp Haven zoned R-4.

Neither the township nor NM Investment Company has filed a response to the Comos-Coon lawsuit. No hearing date has been set.