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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


GLADWIN COUNTY DRAIN COMMISSIONER, Petitioner-Appellee, v WIGGINS LAKE PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION, Respondent-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED November 17, 2005

No. 258055 Gladwin Circuit Court LC No. 64-003080-CK

Before: Donofrio, P.J. and Zahra and Kelly, JJ. PER CURIAM. Respondent appeals as of right the trial court's order revising the water level of Wiggins Lake and revising the boundaries of Chappel Dam Assessment District. We affirm. I. Special Assessment District Respondent first argues that there was no special assessment district in existence at the time of the hearing and, therefore, the trial court was required to create a new special assessment district.1 We disagree. We review conclusions of law de novo and findings of fact for clear error. Ambs v Kalamazoo Co Rd Comm'n, 255 Mich App 637, 651; 662 NW2d 424 (2003). The 1965 Order creating the Chappel Dam Special Assessment District provided in relevant part:

Respondent does not properly present any issue on appeal regarding how the trial court might otherwise have erred in modifying the boundaries of the special assessment district. As such, we limit our analysis simply to those issues set forth in respondent's statement of questions presented on appeal, i.e., whether a special assessment district existed or if the trial court was required to create a new one. MCR 7.212(C)(5); Busch v Holmes, 256 Mich App 4, 12; 662 NW2d 64 (2003).

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It is Ordered and Adjudged, on Motion of said Prosecuting Attorney, that there is hereby established per said Act 146 of the Public Acts of 1961, a Special Assessment District of said Chappel Dam, and that the properties within said Special Assessment District are those as set forth in the Petition, It is further Ordered and Adjudged, on Motion of said Prosecuting Attorney, that said Special Assessment District is under the jurisdiction of the Gladwin County Drain Commissioner and that he shall spread a tax in accordance with the tax laws upon the properties in said district for the period of 20 years for the purpose of raising the sum of $4,000.00 per year, or in the event said Drain Commissioner shall determine that it is not necessary to raise that amount in any given year, then that amount that would be a fraction of said $4,000.00 for the maintenance of said dam . . . and that said tax shall be spread in accordance with the apportionment of benefits as filed by said Drain Commissioner, or until the further order of this Court. The 1965 Order does not create a sunset provision for a special assessment district, but rather, creates a sunset provision for the assessment of the yearly tax. This conclusion is supported by the structure and language of the order itself and by provisions of the Inland Lake Level Act, (ILLA) of 1961 MCL 281.61 et seq. A plain reading of the 1965 Order indicates that the court contemplated two distinct actions: first, the creation of a district and, second, the levying of a $4,000 per year tax on property in that district. The twenty-year limitation is contained in the provision for the tax and clearly limits the yearly tax. This interpretation of the order is consistent with the ILLA of 1961. The version of the ILLA in force in 1964 required court approval for any yearly project expenditures or maintenance in excess of $500. 1961 PA 146,

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Michigan Law