What we can learn from Plum Creek Timber and Maine

Soon after I started LandChoices , I received a phone call and e-mail from the land acquistion person at a very high end home builder in Oakland Township. She wanted LandChoices' endorsement for a controversial project. Her boss was trying to push through approx. 1,000 house lots, hundreds more than would normally be allowed. His strategy was to look like the "good guy" to the township and community when he later downscaled the site plan to a still over abundance of homes.

The following day, Saturday, I received a FedEx Overnight Saturday Delivery Package (do you know how expensive this is? VERY). It contained a three inch thick leather bound large booklet, filled with quotes from presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt. This was the site plan and marketing booklet for the subdivision that was about to destroy a beautiful landscape in Oakland Township in Oakland County. And it was gorgeous. Too bad it wasn't sincere. I could see through the fancy marketing-they wanted denisity.

Many developers' initial site plans are so outrageous that they make revised site plans look very acceptable, leaving people thinking “That sure was nice of the developer to listen to the community and scale down from 969 house lots to 695 house lots.” As the article states, That is the wrong standard. And that's exactly what happened with the situation in my story. Very sad.

Read this article on Plum Creek. Pay attention to lesson four:

Again, very sad, but very true.

Kirt Manecke
LandChoices