Andie Balenger | Daily Press Residents of the Lake Bluff Retirement Village occupy all available seats at Gladstone City Hall for the city commission’s regular meeting Monday night. Residents expressed concerns about the current state of the Oaks Caddyshack Golf Course, taxes, utility services, and disputes with the owners of the retirement village.

GLADSTONE — Residents of the Lake Bluff Retirement Village filled Gladstone City Hall’s commission chambers Monday night, seeking answers to several issues regarding their homes and the property on which they reside. Individual residents expressed concerns regarding the current state of the Oaks Caddyshack Golf Course, taxes, utility services, and disputes with the owners of the retirement village.

City Manager Eric Buckman added the issue to the Gladstone City Commission’s agenda because the number of residents seeking answers has been on the rise.

Discussions began with the status of the Oaks Caddyshack Golf Course, which is now overgrown and unplayable. Village residents, whose homes rest along the golf course, described how the seeming abandonment of the course has affected their living space. With the grass needing to be cut, gates being left unlocked, and trespassers entering the space on ATVs and other motorized vehicles, some residents stated that the course may end up as a liability in the near future.

Despite owning the golf course, the City of Gladstone cannot take any action on the matter at this point in time due to an ongoing legal dispute between the city and the golf course’s current concessionaire. While the two parties hope to be at an agreement in the near future, comments and grievances regarding the golf course were put on the back burner at this meeting.

“We are currently in negotiation with … the concessionaire agreement person, and we are talking with him and his attorney and he is talking with us and our attorney,” Buckman said. “Things are going really well … but until we get that negotiated out we are not really going to talk about it.”

Buckman then went on to summarize how mobile homes, like the houses in the retirement village, are taxed within the state of Michigan. Since 1959, mobile homes that exist within a mobile home park have been taxed at a rate of $3 per month per home. Of that $3, 50 cents go to the city, 50 cents go to the county, and the remaining $2 go towards the State School Aid Fund.

Within a mobile home park, however, personal property taxes are assessed and applied to structures that exist on a rented lot, excluding the home. These structures, which are considered “leasehold improvements,” can include garages, concrete slabs, awnings, and any other addition that is not the home itself.

One resident in attendance questioned what Lake Bluff Retirement Community LLC, the owner of the retirement village, pays in taxes.

“One of the reasons we’d like to know what they are paying is because they use that as a reason to raise our rent … you know saying “taxes went up so we are going to charge you another $50 a month,” he said. “My rent has gone up $80 in three years.”

Lake Bluff Retirement Community LLC pays taxes on the 70 plus acres of property that the park encapsulates, including the Community Center and other outbuildings that exist within the space. While Janice Ketchum, the city assessor, did not know the exact dollar amount that the LLC pays in taxes, she was able to explain the relationship between taxes and inflation to those in attendance.

“Taxes go up, just about every year, because of the inflation rate. Everybody’s does,” Ketchum said.

Because the village owners are a private enterprise, however, the commission also has their hands tied.

“We want to bring it the city’s attention that there is an alarming trend in our country with private investors and developers buying up manufactured home communities. They raise the rents to whatever they deem appropriate for profit and do not invest back into the community,” a resident in attendance said. “We know that the city can’t do much about this situation. We just wanted you to know what’s going on.”

Snow removal, garbage disposal, and recycling services within the retirement village were addressed as well. While the city has no control over plowing services, because the roads within the village are private, garbage and recycling services are considered a utility and handled as if the residents were living in town.

In other business, the commission:

– Tabled discussion regarding the parcel of lake front property adjacent to Van Cleve Park, which had been discussed at the July 25 meeting, until the commission’s next meeting on August 22. The parcel, which sits right next to Kids Kingdom on Lake Shore Drive, is currently available to city residents as part of a trust agreement whereby the city leases the property on a month-to-month basis for $1 a year.

Two individuals expressed concern about the commission’s movement towards terminating the lease agreement. One woman, who lives across the street from the property, informed commissioners that the land is utilized by the public on a daily basis. In addition to the fitness trail being regularly used, people looking to hammock or collect pine cones take advantage of the space as well

The commission informed attendees that the Parks and Recreation Board had directed Jason Davis, parks and recreation director, to reach out to the Jones’ family representative, who owns the property, in regards to the lease agreement.

– Approved a motion that will amend the water department budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year to include a water main replacement project on several city blocks, spanning from the Saloon Bar to 12th St. According to the commission’s agenda, $100,000 has been set aside for the project, which was originally slated to begin in 2027.