Angst over a prolonged road closure on Old Mission Peninsula has made its way to court.

A woman who lives along Bluff Road filed a lawsuit against the Grand Traverse County Road Commission over a roughly 1,500-foot stretch of the road that’s been closed since early 2020.

Officials initially closed the stretch, which runs very close to Grand Traverse Bay, because erosion and other issues were causing portions of it to become unstable. In March, the road commission voted to “decertify” the closed section, a move indicating that it would no longer be actively maintained.

Josephine Roek is a seasonal peninsula resident who has a home just north of the closure along with an undeveloped five-acre piece of property within the closure. Her lawsuit filed in 13th Circuit Court contends that the road commission’s actions (and inactions) have ruined her property’s value.

“Due to the failure to maintain, the defendant has caused the plaintiff to be unable to access its real property so as to maximize the value of that real property,” the suit reads. “By engaging in lack of action, defendant has caused significant financial damage to plaintiff, estimated to be in excess of $4 million.”

The lawsuit also alleges that Roek’s neighbors, while not part of the lawsuit, are also taking a continued financial hit.

“The inaction of the Grand Traverse County Road Commission has dramatically worsened the condition of Bluff Road, and decertification without a realistic actionable solution poses a real financial harm to the residents of the roadway,” the suit reads.

The suit seeks damages “sufficient to compensate plaintiff for its loss of value of its real property” and to compel the road commission to repair and re-certify the road.

Roek’s property at the heart of the suit does have frontage along Mallard Drive, the center of a subdivision just west up the hill from Bluff Road. But she says the terrain renders that frontage virtually worthless from an access standpoint.

“I am landlocked. Contrary to what the road commission says, there is no real access,” Roek tells The Ticker. “The elevation from Bluff Road to the top of that lot is 135 feet.”

Her attorney is Traverse City-based Craig Elhart, who echoes those sentiments and says the continued deterioration of Bluff Road in front of Roek’s property has caused massive damage to its value.

“Her real property has been completely cut off. It is inside the road closure points, and she can’t get over the top from Mallard Drive because the topography doesn’t allow it,” Elhart tells The Ticker. “So she’s sitting here with this piece of property that is hugely valuable – it’s waterfront property – and all of the sudden it has no value.”

Road Commission Manager Dan Watkins and Board Chair Joe Underwood did not respond to requests for comment for this story. At the time they voted to decertify the stretch, officials said it didn’t mean that they were permanently abandoning the road, and that they could look to fix and reopen it sometime in the future.

The next step in the suit is a hearing next month on the road commission’s motion for summary disposition (dismissal) of the suit. That motion states that the “plaintiff has no clear legal right” to compel the road commission to re-certify or repair the road. It also says the “plaintiff’s claim is compensatory in nature and is therefore directly barred by governmental immunity.”

In addition to concerns about the impact on Roek’s property, the suit also alleges that the closure of a portion of Bluff Road creates “risky delays for emergency vehicles, be it for fires or medical emergencies.”

“I’m pursuing this not only for my property, but because (Bluff Road) it is one of the three possible ways that you can go north and south in the peninsula. This is putting hardship on people that live there because they have to go all the way to Smokey Hollow, which isn’t even plowed by the county,” Roek says. “And what about the fire situation and ambulances?”

Peninsula Township and various first responder organizations have voiced displeasure with the state of Bluff Road on mutiple occasions since the closure began.