HOWELL – Mary Aly has lived in the small cottage community of Schure’s Acres in the north end of Howell for 21 years. Now she’s being forced to leave.
“We have nowhere to go,” Aly said, who currently resides with her two cats off of Fort Plains Road.
Aly was told back in August 2024 that she would need to depart her home as the current property owners, Fort Plains Partner LLC, plan to demolish the cottages.
The Schure family originally owned the property from 1938 until the early 2000s. During the 1940s to early ‘60s, the property evolved from a farm to a bungalow colony. The property has notable history, as some bungalows were used as barracks during World War II. In the 1960s, the property became a country club and thrived for years. In 2003, co-owner Stephen Schure passed away and the property was subsequently sold.
Despite the Schure family no longer owning the property, the cottages remained. Today, the community offers affordable housing to families and residents of Howell.
Aly explained even with the notices from the property owners, her and other residents have continued to pay their rent and utility bills.
“We were supposed to be out this past October for unknown reasons. The people that stayed received another notice to vacate March 1,” Aly said. “It’s unclear as to who wants to demolish the cottages. Either the Township or the owners. The Township says there are code violations. It’s said the property owners have no desire to fix up the cottages or rent them out.”
“Meanwhile, the property owners started fixing up the empty apartments, putting in new appliances about a year and half ago, and started renting them out,” Aly said. “They started painting the cottages, putting up new gutters and new roofs.”
“I’m really not sure what the motive is to get rid of these cottages,” Aly added.
Fort Plains Partner LLC has now brought plans to the Township Zoning Board to build a warehouse and storage facility on the property.
“This is a huge punch in the gut to those of us who live here,” Aly said.
According to the application, the company that has proposed a commercial development on a 34-acre parcel which would include one four-story flex warehouse with mezzanine office space and a four-story self-storage building.
The application was first heard on August 26, 2024 and was carried multiple times up to the recent Zoning Board meeting on February 24. At this meeting, the application was discussed focusing on its architectural features. It was noted in the design plan that the main entrances could only be accessed by the public on Route 9, with no entrances on Fort Plains Road.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, several residents spoke out against building a warehouse in a residential section of the town.
Two members of the Toscana residential community, which resides along Fort Plains Road, said the residents would be directly impacted by this project as the warehouse would be right across the street.
“I believe every application that is made has to be considered. By you being volunteers of our boards and helping us and our neighbors, we just ask you to think about the neighbors that this will affect,” said James Fields, the President of the Toscana community. “Do you think I will be able to go out and resell my property, while in this great market, once this [warehouse] goes up? It’s not just Toscana that’s going to be affected; it’s everyone in our area near Fort Plains Road.”
“There are better uses in this particular area than what is purposed. To place something so huge so close to the residences when there are so many other places where this could go. Maybe we just ask you to reconsider,” Fields added.
Resident Marc Parisi expressed that approving the project would set a dangerous precedent, and that the Township should be preventing the encroachment of industrial development in residential areas.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to set a precedent allowing multiple principal uses on a lot. I don’t know why they’re not subdividing it. I don’t know why there hasn’t been any discussion about maybe trying to show some compassion towards the residents that live on the northern end of the lot and subdivide that. Maybe work with the town to put an overlay and maybe sink some money into improving those cottages, getting some credits for the town and doing something good for the community since there’s no intent to develop that portion of the property,” Parisi said.
Aly created a petition to save the Schure’s Acres cottages, which has gained over 650 signatures.
“I want the public to know that these cottages can be saved. All they need is love. Destroying these cottages will be like erasing history,” Aly said.
For Aly, she will have to rely on emergency housing if she’s forced to vacate her home.
“For some of the people still here we have been here over 20 years or more. Some people are disabled, most on fixed income, some are older,” Aly said. “It’s so hard to find a place to live. It’s very long of a waiting list to get a spot on affordable housing. For regular apartments there are all the backgrounds checks, applications fees, and deposits. It’s very hard to save money for a deposit when you are low income. This all takes time and we don’t have time.”
“These apartments are fixable and most of them are livable. It’s a disgrace that they don’t want to save these cottages but rather focus on a warehouse and storage facility. We are being forced out at no fault of our own. They don’t want to keep these affordable housing,” Aly said.
“We don’t need another storage facility or warehouse. There has to be like five storage units within a mile and half of each other. This project will cause more traffic on this little road when an area of Route 9 is shut down. We get all the Route 9 traffic detouring down our road,” Aly added.
The February 24 Zoning Board meeting concluded with the application being pushed again to March 24. Additional testimony for the safety issues addressed during the review, including the design of the sidewalk as well as fire egress and access will be heard at the next meeting.
Anyone interested in signing Aly’s petition to save the Schure’s Acres cottages can do so at change.org/p/save-schure-s-acres-the-fort-plains-road-cottages.
