Detroit-Area Municipality Caves In, Agrees To Settlement In Fair Housing Lawsuit In Connection w/ Zoning Dispute Involving Request To Build High-Density Project For Elderly, Vets With Disabilities

In Oakland Township, Michigan, Crain's Detroit Business reports:

• A settlement has been reached in a five-year legal battle over a proposed $93 million veterans, senior and people with disabilities living community that allows Auburn Hills-based Moceri Cos. to increase the number of living units in the project and add additional amenities in Oakland Township.
  
  A new release said U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Berg must still enter the settlement as a consent judgment before it takes effect.
  
  Township Manager Dale Stuart declined to comment other than to say that the township board Tuesday night agreed to enter into the consent judgment.
  
  In December 2014, Moceri/DM Investments LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Moceri Cos., and former township supervisor Joan Buser, now a South Carolina resident, and the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America filed separate lawsuits against the township alleging violations of the federal Fair Housing Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act and the equal protection guarantee of the U.S. Constitution, among others.
  
  The complaints were a response to a zoning dispute involving the Blossom Ridge project at Adams and Dutton roads on 42 acres of Moceri Cos.-owned land proposed in 2011 with 134 congregate care living units, 60 four-plex ranch units and 44 duplexes. All are 238 residences were designed for the elderly and people with disabilities.

For more, see Proposed settlement reached in Blossom Ridge development lawsuit (Moceri Cos. project would increase to 329 residences for total development exceeding $165 million in Oakland Township).