{"id":20,"date":"2026-08-26T19:52:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/?p=20"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:52:16","slug":"lodi-township-michigan-neighbors-take-on-toll-brothers-with-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/?p=20","title":{"rendered":"Lodi Township Michigan Neighbors Take on Toll Brothers with Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n



On June 17, Lodi Township Neighbors Alliance (LANA) member Susan Miller filed a lawsuit in the 22nd<\/sup>\u00a0Circuit Court for Washtenaw County against developer Toll Brothers.\u00a0\u00a0LANA advocates for better land use decisions, transparency in local government, and environmental protection in Lodi Township.\u00a0\u00a0The filing asserts that Toll Brothers\u2019 new, large luxury home project in the largely rural and agricultural Lodi Township, MI\u2014called Arbor Preserve–is being built without regard for the environment or the rights of the development\u2019s neighbors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit alleges Toll\u2019s development plan will create a public and private nuisance and trespass and will harm the neighboring areas by utilizing private wastewater treatment plants and detention ponds that will discharge treated wastewater and polluted surface water from over 100 large, luxury homes into the Rouse Drain, which feeds into the Saline River and River Raisin. The suit further alleges that Toll\u2019s plan will increase the flow of water onto neighbors\u2019 property in violation of Michigan\u2019s long-established \u201cNatural Flow Doctrine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toll has a long history of environmental infractions, for example, in 2012 Toll entered into a $741,000 settlement with the EPA and DOJ for numerous alleged infringements of the Clean Water Act across twenty-three states, in 2008 the Illinois Attorney General and Illinois EPA cited Toll for violating numerous water pollution and public water supply regulations, and between 2023 and 2025 Toll received citations for repeated environmental violations in Hopkinton, Massachusetts which left local regulators at \u201cwit\u2019s end\u201d in trying to compel Toll Brothers to comply with the law. (Hopkinton Independent News Article<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit alleges that small private wastewater treatment plants like Toll plans to use have an extremely high rate of failure and create a risk of the discharge of raw sewage into the Rouse Drain. These plants are not permitted under Lodi Township\u2019s comprehensive Zoning Ordinances. However, Toll Brother\u2019s secured an exception from the township and rammed through other local approvals despite widespread concern from the citizens of Lodi Township and the development\u2019s downstream neighbors. Township officials feared Toll would initiate costly litigation against the Township if it didn\u2019t get its way.<\/del><\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit also alleges that Toll is disregarding Miller\u2019s property rights and planning to build over a longstanding property access easement deeded to Miller, her only access to her own property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiff Miller stated: \u201cIn meeting after meeting the community spoke out against the environmental harm and disregard for Lodi ordinances brought by this project, but Toll was not interested in the community\u2019s views. They left township officials profoundly concerned about a bankrupting lawsuit.\u201d She added: Toll’s plan for a land-leveling development of luxury homes pretends to fill a need for housing but in fact it devastates a natural landscape and makes a mockery of Lodi Township\u2019s comprehensive environmental ordinance. The Lodi Township Planning Commission voted against the site plans unanimously and stated that they violate Lodi\u2019s ordinances.”

For additional information, contact attorney Samuel Estenson at 248-432-1586<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LANA has started a GoFundMe to cover litigation expenses:  https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/Protect-Lodi-Waters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 17, Lodi Township Neighbors Alliance (LANA) member Susan Miller filed a lawsuit in the 22nd\u00a0Circuit Court for Washtenaw County against developer Toll Brothers.\u00a0\u00a0LANA advocates for better land use decisions, transparency in local government, and environmental protection in Lodi Township.\u00a0\u00a0The filing asserts that Toll Brothers\u2019 new, large luxury home project in the largely rural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lodineighbors.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}