The owners of a 40-acre parcel in Bingham Township are suing Elmwood Township plus several county and state agencies - and what appears to be nearly a page-full of people from the local phone book - over a dispute related to an easement leading onto their property from Elmwood.

Bingham property owners Daniel P. Bocik and Marena M. Sabo filed two lawsuits last year that have since been combined into one, according to their attorney David A. Bieganowski.

“This is just a really goofy real estate problem,” Bieganowski told the Enterprise this week. “It all stems from a decision Elmwood Township made in 1987 when the township approved a subdivision that isolated my client’s parcel and left only a 16-foot easement to access it. The township’s private road ordinance now says that a 16-foot easement isn’t wide enough.”

The suit seeks to expand the easement – but expansion would require that a 42-inch strip of land be taken from a common area of a neighboring subdivision.

Many of the 73 private individuals who own homes in the neighboring Valley Hills subdivision in Elmwood Township, directly adjacent to the Bocik/Sabo property, think the situation is anything but “goofy.” They’re all being sued by Bocik and Sabo.

For Beth Holleman, who is trying to sell her home in the Valley Hills subdivision, it’s nothing less than a major headache.

“We understand that Mr. Bocik was told by the township that there would be access problems with his parcel before he bought it – but he bought it anyway,” Holleman said. “Now, there’s a lawsuit hanging over everybody’s head. And for someone like me who is trying to sell a house, the process is a lot tougher with a lawsuit pending. I feel like we’re being bullied,” Holleman said.

Elmwood Township clerk Connie Preston confirmed that Bocik was informed of the limited access to his 40-acre property in Bingham Township when purchased it.

“The former owner obtained the easement from us before he sold the property,” Preston explained. But the easement went through an old township dump near the northern boundary of Elmwood Township.

“That’s why access was so limited – because people didn’t want the dump disturbed,” Preston explained.

“This is just a very complicated case,” Preston continued, “and one of the problems is that the parcel in question is not in Elmwood Township – it’s in Bingham. We would have no say in how the parcel is developed. And Bingham has no say in how we should handle the issue here.”

Bocik and his attorney visited Bingham Township and made a brief “informational” presentation at the Township Board meeting last month – but no action was taken. It turns out that one of the property owners adjacent to the Bocik/Sabo property is township supervisor Ross Ard.

Attorney Bieganowski said he simply wanted Bingham to be aware of his client’s dispute with Elmwood because the parcel in question is located in Bingham Township. The attorney said state law prohibits municipalities from creating subdivisions or dividing land in a manner that prevents access to a parcel of land – exactly what he asserts Elmwood did in 1987.

In a previous lawsuit in the case, the Leelanau Conservancy was named as a defendant because it owned a conservation easement on an adjacent property in Bingham Township through which access to the 40-acre Bocik/Sabo property might be obtained. The conservancy is not named in the new consolidated suit, however.

In addition to the 73 individual private property owners and Elmwood Township, defendants include the Leelanau County Road Commission, the Leelanau County Drain Commissioner, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan Department of Treasury, and several utility companies which have interests in easements on adjacent properties.

A settlement conference in the case has been scheduled for April 18.