Even though the South Haven City Council in December put the brakes on a proposed resort development on the city’s south side, the issue is not over for Councilman Bill Bradley.

Bradley said the council “got in the way” of the developers, who asked in December to have a 19-acre parcel on the site of the now defunct Bohn Aluminum Casting Plant rezoned so that construction of a $100 million development, called Lake Michigan Resort, could begin.

The council voted 4-3 to not recommend to the Planning Commission that the parcel be rezoned, with council members in the majority saying the resort was not an appropriate type of development for the site.

At the center of Bradley’s argument was the promise from the developer — Goforth Group LLC — that the resort would create as many as 700 jobs, jobs Bradley said the area badly needs and should have been taken into more consideration.

“There is an opportunity for hundreds of jobs in South Haven if the city doesn’t block this,” he said. “Public officials don’t know more than the people putting money into the project.”

Bradley has sought the help of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, state Sen. Ron Jelinek, state Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker and Van Buren County Commissioner Thomas Erdmann, writing letters to each official.

“All these officials claim to be in favor of creating jobs,” Bradley said in a news release. “Now we will see if they are serious, if they are willing to back their talk with real action.”

Bradley said he plans to bring up the issue of the resort at Monday’s City Council meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. The item is not on the agenda, but Bradley said he will make a motion to have it added. He believes he has enough support that it will be.

Mayor Dorothy Appleyard, who voted against recommending the rezoning, said she would be willing to discuss the issue at the meeting but doubts that any council members will change their minds.

“If we voted again on this, it would come out the same as it did before,” she said. “But I’m willing to talk about it.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Real Estate, Resort. Tags: City Hall County Commission development Lake Michigan Michigan Planning Commission Resort Van Buren . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.