KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo County government was once again denied possession of a local family cottage in the latest surrounding a yearslong legal battle.
Attorneys for Levine & Levine, the law firm representing the families, announced Judge Curtis Bell rejected the county’s most recent efforts to claim the Johnson-Talanda Cottage Thursday through eminent domain.
“After spending months working with the county’s attorneys to reach an agreement, which would have ended yearslong litigation over the Johnson/Talanda family cottage, the county’s attorneys decided to file a summary disposition motion asking for the immediate transfer of ownership to the county based upon a strained reading of the Uniform Condemnation and Procedures,” says Managing Partner Randall Levine. “The county once again is spending thousands of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to gain land that they have no right to obtain through condemnation. The county has not been able to prove need for the property, which is the very essence of the Condemnation Act.”
The cottage — and the one-third-acre property it sits on in Prairie View Park — is the center of a seven-year-long ownership dispute between the families and the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners.
The county accepted a proposal from the families in the early '60s saying the county would get the first option to buy the property before anyone else.
The last of the original owners passed away in 2019.
We’re told the county entered a settlement in fall 2022 to continue its 60-year coexistence with the cottage’s owners.
Attorneys say the new Board of Commissioners informed the owners they were against condemnation over the property, offering a potential end in sight to accruing legal fees.
READ MORE: Kalamazoo County attorneys drop complaint against Johnson-Talanda Cottage
