On April 5th, 2023 I attended a meeting of the Ludington Planning Commission for the first time.  This may come as a surprise since I've attended hundreds of city council meetings and several standing committee, DDA Board, and Municipal Marina meetings, but as a civil libertarian I have a visceral dislike of central planning in a supposedly free society, so I have avoided these in the past to keep my blood pressure low.  

Yet, this day I had a favor to ask of them, seeking them out as one last potential remedy before going nuclear on the school and city one more time in order to preserve the health and safety of our children and our community.  I was compelled to use that option when the city wanted to hire a bunch of fed mercenaries to use a lot of unsafe and unlawful methods to slaughter deer at the Ludington elementary school grounds.  

This time around the school is taking action on land within the city's purview:  installing artificial turf at Oriole Field.  The school board and superintendent, as shown in their meeting packets and inability to address simple questions, have no idea of what kind of chemicals and carcinogens are going to be in the layers of infill and turf to be put down.  They have no idea of how and where rainwater and runoff are going to be draining in the approximately 1.5 acre field made of impervious (or at best semi-pervious) materials.  Both the school and the city have duties to the community, and especially our children and future generations, to make sure any future Oriole Fake Field will not introduce anything that may do us harm.

So after a roll call was taken (Commissioner Jeff White was absent) and the agenda was approved, I spoke of my concerns in a plea for assistance in the public comment period before the four diverse public hearings were held.  Those hearings and the commission's actions on them would teach me a valuable lesson this day.  Links to relevant data is provided in this comment.

April 5th, 2023 Ludington City Planning Commission meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  "I'm asking the Planning Commission for some assistance, because I believe that some administrators and other boards have been cutting corners to put the community in a dangerous position.  The LASD has contracted with Astroturf Inc. to install artificial turf at Oriole Field with work to likely begin in May.  According to Superintendent Corlett and FOIA responses, the company has not provided the school or its Toxic Hazard Preparedness Officer with anything indicating that the turf or its infill contains any toxic materials.  In our school board's bylaws, they have an expressed duty to protect our children from hazards they may encounter on school grounds, part of which is identifying such hazards and gathering Material Safety Data Sheets on any hazardous material that may come in contact with them.  The school board was given no information at all about this turf or its infill before approving $1.4 million to install it.  Most turf infill has numerous carcinogens in them like vinyl chloride, benzene, and trichloroethylene which can leach into the groundwater or poison our kids who play on it by any of the four types of exposure.  

City law defines Oriole Field as being a "park", city law also states that no person shall willfully remove any grass or make any excavation in a park without first obtaining a permit from the city manager.  Mr. Foster has told me he has not permitted this alteration of a city park, because the school has not petitioned him for it, but he has indicated that he believes it's not his duty to do so, nor has he humored the holding of a Recreation Board meeting to address the topic and find out how hazardous this turf and its infill may be.  Nobody wants to do their minimal duty to make sure that our community is not harmed, so here's why I appeal to you.

Page 8 of the city's master plan says:  "A variety of Low impact development techniques are applicable within Ludington and should be promoted within all future public and private development."  Among the best management practices in non-structural development are 1) Reduce impervious surfaces, 2) Protect natural flow pathways, 3) Minimize total disturbed area, 4) Minimize soil compaction, 5) Protect sensitive areas.  Artificial turf violates each of these, and when one looks at the master plan's goals on page 42, one is to reduce impervious surface coverage within the City on both public and private properties.  This development will put tons of heavy metals and hazardous hydrocarbons covered by a 1.3 acre carpet and remove natural grass.  

The commission should conduct a site plan review before the toxins hit the ground, if superintendents and city manager care naught for our watershed's viability and the community's safety, you must step into the breach and save us all from what could be a very costly mistake." (END comment)

It should be noted that improvements of public properties in the city's Government Service Districts require a site plan review by section 5.2 of the zoning code therein, so it seems that the Planning Commission has already abrogated their own duty in not already looking this over-- but I was looking for aid, so I didn't want to remind them of that.  

To receive an answer, I figured I would have to wait until the end of the meeting where commissioners can freely comment, so I listened patiently to the four other hearings, each of which was instructive in its own way in my edification and revelation at the end of the meeting.

The first involved the addition of an attached garage after first demolishing the existing accessory building.  The site plan committee (SPC) had found it met all minimal conditions and that the net square footage of the auxilary buildings were within the limits established in the zoning code.  It was readily approved unanimously.  

The second hearing was for a childcare facility for up to 12 kids way up in the 1200 block of N Kenowa.  Commissioner Adam Johnson abstained from the discussion and vote and it was quickly learned why, his wife (presumably) Lexi Johnson was the one setting up the facility and asking for the use.  The SPC announced its approval, and despite a neighbor worried about parking considerations, the use was approved without further ado.  One can hope that the minutes reflect what Commissioner Johnson and his peers would not, that his wife and presumable-business-partner was the reason for the abstention.  Multiple laws require officials with conflicts of interest to disclose any pecuniary, contractual, business, employment or personal interest in a matter before them and have that entered into the minutes.

Things got interesting in the third hearing when House of Flavors was applying for an "enhancing refrigeration safety" use.  This wasn't the only euphemism the HOF-ers would offer as they would eventually explain that the two tanks of refrigerant they were constructing outside the plants were "vessels", and they tried to explain that this was safer to the community than having them be inside the facility. 

Before this, a handful of residents in the neighborhood would get up and voice their concerns, chief among them were noise complaints and their lack of information on what was actually going on.  Ed Lefler led the group voicing nightmares of ammonia leaks he had while living in the shadow of the factory, mentioning ways the HOF was not living up to its agreements made in 2006.  Dr. Gene Olsen wondered about the nature of the safety issues this would mitigate and how the notice sent out was unclear on this.  The others would mention this along with other agreements from 2002 and pledges that noisy trucks would not be coming in as frequent as they have been.

In the end, HOF representatives claimed their $4.8 million investment would not increase production, only make things safer was accepted not only by the SPC but by the full board who unanimously chose to approve the improvement during a process which would have Lefler leave the room disgusted with the whole proceeding.  The HOF-fers euphemistic presentation was short on details of how this would make things safer but make clear that there would be two more tanks vessels visible from Rotary (City) Park.  

The last public hearing involved Ray Karboske's expansion of his campground on the north shore of the PM Bayou by four spots, made possible by his recent acquisition of property east of the campsites already installed over the last few years.  Here, another handful (5) of neighbors got up, but instead of eviscerating Mr. Karboske's current campground operation, they praised it to a man.  Karboske and his wife, Jessica, explained it in detail and addressed some points in a letter from the city attorney.  They added another local letter of support.  

This level of support was impressive in a meeting that was entering its second hour.  Despite this, the special land use committee (also chaired by Commissioner Kreinbrink) offered no recommendation, effectively shuffling it to the full commission.  During a wide-ranging discussion where it was noted that kids camping in the backyard is effectively against the law, they decided to table the motion to approve this use, suggesting the application could be amended, since the attorney's opinion right now was that the new use would be a violation.  

The meeting would then wind down with reports, commissioner comments, and adjournment; a more concise summarization of the public hearings is found in the April 5 minutes.  The commission would fail to address my issue with turfing Oriole Field.  So what did I learn from my first, and hopefully last, visit to a meeting of the Ludington Planning Commission?

Three things.  The Planning Commission's overall goal is to make sure that land uses fit their neighborhood well, but on this day they failed notably.  Karboske's neighbors were in full support of adding more campgrounds to his property, House of Flavors' neighbors were in total opposition to the addition of more outdoor storage vessels tanks, making the commonsense rationalization that the public would be even less protected against future ammonia spills, and looking at a history of failed promises and indifference by the ice cream industrialists.  

House of Flavors request was approved with no challenge to their claims or any independent validation of any of the neighbors' complaints.  Karboske's request was denied on the grounds that the city attorney's opinion was that the current zoning law would not allow it, even though it was a natural extension of the campground and completely supported by neighbors.  It was Animal Farm personified:  some animals are more equal than others.

Second thing I learned was that the commission was able to utilize their special land use committee to judge that property adjacent to a campground, recently purchased, could not be used for a campground without violating the law, yet they could not even comment on the upcoming renovations on Oriole Field, effectively turning a natural field into a carcinogen dumping ground, and how it violated not only the master plan, but also zoning law.  

Lastly, I learned they at least had some consistency, in that they weren't really all that concerned with the community's safety in that they failed to challenge the contractor scheduled to make millions with the 'safety upgrades' much like the school board failed to challenge Astroturf's claims of totally safe turf in their $1.4 million project.  And exactly like they failed to respond to the potential environmental disaster at Oriole Field that could all be avoided if our school and city officials would do their jobs and find out what exactly is going to be going into that 1.3 acre hole that currently is pristine Oriole Field.  

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Thanks for the topic X. Another very good article. One has to wonder what are City officials and the School Board and the Planning Board and anyone else in authority thinking. Nobody in charge has any question about this fake turf project? Not only about the potential health hazard to children or the health of adjacent property owners. Are all City and school officials brain dead? Even if they are for it, why don't they at least check into it? The way these people are acting you would guess they are already drinking fake turf water and it's affecting the reasoning center of their brains. So I guess there is absolutely no doubt who is in control of the steering wheel.



I can't help but be totally disgusted with the school board forcing kids to wear masks most of the 2021/2022 school year on their own volition without concerns for learning or mental health, permitting a deer cull without any restrictions or concerns on elementary school property, and now making a 1.5 acre toxic pit where Oriole Field once was without any concerns-- and neither is the City concerned even though they have numerous duties to oversee such projects.  Just think, if the turf and its infill was totally innocuous it would be just that easy for them to say here's what we've been given by Astroturf Inc. to show that what is in it is perfectly safe.  

Instead, the only thing the school had to provide me through FOIA was a couple of turf-industry links, one saying no study has ever proven a direct link between infill/turf exposure and health problems/cancer, and the other obfuscating the issues of injuries and abrasions, which are more likely to happen and be more serious on turf.  Nothing about ingredients, but the first link provided makes it clear that they don't think the crumb rubber infill is dangerous-- and that position is most dangerous.

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