June 11 2004

On May 28, 2004, Dan Spatafora, representing Shelby 25 Venture, LLC, of Shelby Township pled no contest in the 41A District Court of Macomb County to a violation of the Michigan wetland protection regulations.

The Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney authorized charges in the case stemming from a Department of Environmental Quality investigation of the company’s failure to comply with an existing wetland development permit. DEQ investigators found that development on the property had impacted more wetland than had been permitted, and the developer had failed to construct a mitigation wetland to compensate for natural wetland impacted by the project.

Wetland mitigation can include the permanent protection of wetlands on a site not directly impacted by the proposed activity and, in some situations, establishing a wetland at another location not impacted by the development.

The DEQ issued Shelby 25 Venture a permit requiring the company to construct 1.6 acres of wetlands to mitigate 1.06 acres of natural wetlands that were going to be impacted by their project. In addition to failing to construct the manmade wetlands, the site inspection showed that the developer had impacted 2.4 acres of wetlands beyond the acreage permitted in the DEQ permit.

After accepting the no contest plea and reviewing the facts of the charge, the court concluded there was sufficient basis for finding the company guilty. Shelby 25 Venture was sentenced to pay $2,500 to the Macomb County Environmental Fund and to pay $750 in restitution to the State of Michigan. The company was also placed on 6-month’s probation, during which the magistrate directed the company to stay in compliance with all applicable wetland permit requirements.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

Revised June 11, 2004 by Pat Watson