February 2016

By Dane Carey, Dingeman & Dancer, PLC

Michigan townships have authority to regulate inland lakes via riparian rights that attach to the adjoining water. Township of Yankee Springs v. Fox, 264 Mich App 604, 606 (2004). Unlike inland lakes, however, the State of Michigan holds title to the center of each Great Lake bordering Michigan, and riparian owners on the Great Lakes only own to the ordinary high-water mark. Hilt v. Weber, 252 Mich 198 (1930); Peterman v. Department of Natural Resources, 446 Mich 177 (1994). Given that exclusive riparian ownership ends at the ordinary high-water mark, it logically follows that a township’s authority to regulate ends at this point.

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By Alyssa Gunsorek, Law Office of Alyssa Gunsorek

Cooperative housing units suffer from a measure of confusion at the hands of assessors, but the court of appeals recently clarified the principal residence exemption for them under MCL 211.7cc. Swiss Farms, Inc. v. Department of Treasury, Mich App No. 322217, October 13, 2015. Swiss Farms is a nonprofit corporation originally platted as a private "camp" with individual lots. Its members hold membership certificates and own an undivided share of the assets. The Department of Treasury denied the PRE forms that Swiss Farms submitted for 2008 through 2011 because the corporation does not provide homes or issue one class of stock to its members.

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Interested in writing an article for the e-Newsletter? Contact co-editors Samuel Kilberg at SKilberg@dykema.com or Glen Zatz at gzatz@bodmanlaw.com.

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