WLKM Radio 95.9 FM
A privately-owned cottage in the middle of a park will be switching hands.
A state court of appeals confirmed Kalamazoo County has a right to take control of the cottage under eminent domain after a lengthy legal battle.
That decision came down last week, which upheld a 2023 circuit court judge’s ruling where the county had proven the property will be used for a public purpose. This would make it eligible to be taken under the county’s eminent domain authority.
Descendants of the cottage’s original owners argued the county’s plans to develop the park using the cottage’s land would not meet requirements necessary for it to be condemned. The cottage is surrounded by better than 200 acres of county-owned property that makes up the Prairie View Park in Vicksburg. Back in the 1960s, the cottage owners said they made a legal agreement with the county and kept the building by handing it down from generation to generation.
The county argued the document indicated than when the original owners died, it would have the right of first refusal to purchase the land at fair market value.
Back in March 2022, the county commission voted to pay the family more than $300,000 for the lakefront property, but were turned down.
Kalamazoo County has a long history of stealing homes and property. They make the national news again and again for their unconstitutional theft and abuse of property owners.
I’m an heir of the original family and my parents signed a contract with the county that they would offer first right of refusal when the last of the 10 original owners dies. My father finally died at age 94 and some of my siblings and 10 cousins refused to honor that contract. The county has every right to that property.