The Dorr Township 
Board finally approved a request from Joe Jablonski to have a house and 1.82 acres of property at 2211 138th Ave. rezoned from commercial to rural estates.
The board finally gave its blessing six months after it was recommended by the Planning Commission. It was held up because Trustee John Tuinstra noted Jablonski since has sold the house and property, but there was no input from new owner Dan Wright as to what he wants to do the site.
Tuinstra was successful Dec. 1 in postponing the decision on the request to seek further information, incurring criticism from Trustee Dan Weber and Supervisor Jeff Miling for taking matters into his own hands.
Tuinstra noted that a request to rezone the property was made to the Township Planning Commission last June by Jablonski, but the site now is owned by Dan Wright.
“It looks to me as though this is highly irregular and maybe not even legal,” Tuinstra told board colleagues. “I’d be irritated if someone wanted to rezone my property without my knowledge.”
It was reported that Jablonski made the request because it gave him a better chance to sell it.
Tuinstra said because he was unsuccessful in reaching Wright for comment, he even personally went to his house to inquire. He was still unsuccessful in making any contact.
Tuinstra’s actions were regarded by Weber as conduct unbecoming of an elected township trustee.
“I think he is operating above his authority and he needs to stop (this behavior),” Weber said.
He agreed that further inquiry was needed, but it is not Tuinstra’s job to do that work unilaterally without any board input.
“We (Township Board members) are not supposed to do the investigating,” Miling added.
Noting the property immediately to the east of Jablonski’s house was rural estates, Commissioner Larry Dolegowski said last summer, “It should zoned rural estates anyway.”
On Thursday night, the Township Board voted 5-0 to proceed with approving the rezoning and noted two attempts had been to contact Wright but there was no response.
Tuinstra this time said, “It looks like everything is all in line and we made two attempts to contact the owner.”
Miling said, “To have a home like in the woods and have it zoned commercial is not in his (Wright’s) best interests. And we had a public hearing. I have no problem with rezoning as the Planning Commission recommended.”
PHOTO: John Tuinstra
I guess i am not seeing the point, why wouldn’t the constituents want their elected officials to seek to understand what they are voting on.. That might entail talking to people (wow this could be a new concept), visiting proposed building sites etc etc I could only hope that more elected officials would do a better job fact finding before rubber stamping projects. I wished our local government had more folks like John Tuinstra that were willing to earn their salaries rather than take what the supervisor or other trustees says should happen.