Opinion ID: 2191796
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the township board's statutory authority

Text: The authority of local governing bodies to approve and disapprove proposed subdivision plats is created and governed by the SCA. SCA § 106 provides: No approving authority or agency having the power to approve or reject plats shall condition approval upon compliance with, or base a rejection upon, any requirement other than those included in [SCA §] 105. SCA § 105 provides: Approval of preliminary and final plats shall be conditioned upon compliance with: (a) The provisions of this act. (b) Any ordinance or published rules of a municipality or county adopted to carry out the provisions of this act. (c) Any published rules of a county drain commissioner, county road commission, or county plat board adopted to carry out the provisions of this act. In this case, the township board asserts three grounds for its rejection of the developer's proposed plat, one deriving from each quoted subsection. The board argues that its action is supported by (1) a provision[] of this act, namely, SCA § 182(4)(a), (2) a published rule[] of a municipality, namely, § 101-4.12(a) of the Meridian Township Subdivision Regulations, and (3) a published rule[] of a ... county road commission, namely, § VII.B.1 of the Ingham County Road Commission Procedures for Plat Street Development. We do not address the validity of the township board's reliance upon § 101-4.12(a) of the subdivision regulations, in view of the fact that neither the circuit court nor the Court of Appeals has passed on that issue, and we find that we need not address that issue in order to resolve this case. The three issues before this Court are the validity of SCA § 182(4)(a) and § VII.B.1 of the road commission plat procedures as bases for the township board's action and the relevance of this Court's decision in Arrowhead. [4]