BLOOMFIELD TWP., Mich. (WXYZ) — A popular chef is cooking up controversy with plans for a new venue in Bloomfield Township. The proposal is sparking major backlash with some community members, and it seems the battle is only just beginning.
Watch the reports from Darren Cunningham and Faraz Javed below
We first showed you rendering back in February for a project called Bloomfield Hollow. It's a glass sanctuary designed to blend into the surrounding nature; the proposed space would sit on 30 acres of dense forest off Franklin Road near Square Lake.
The fight over the controversial proposed 30,000 square-foot event venue is far from over. Last night saw another tense meeting that stretched late into the night, where residents expressed their concerns about how the proposed event space would bring down property value and increase noise pollution and at the center of it all — allegations of fraud.
"Mr. Sklar submitted this fake document over 39 days ago and nobody, not one person in the township, noticed it was completely fake and made-up," said Bloomfield Township resident Brett Northcutt.
The meeting took a sharp turn when the residents, including Brett Northcutt and Stephon Bagne, accused the developer’s team of submitting fraudulent real estate documents to the planning commission.
"They submitted a document from a real estate broker, not a real estate appraiser, and the document was completely fraudulent. It was an AI hallucination. It has 50 different locations in it, none of which actually exist. There's streets that don't exist. There's supposedly sales not existent because the houses don't even exist," Bagne told us.
Developer Zack Sklar declined an interview, but his attorney told the board there was no fraud — just mistakes.
"I think it's quite a stretch to allege fraud when there's no evidence of fraud here. Somebody made a mistake. but for some reason there are apparently some inaccuracies in the report. We would have to go through that. We would verify it," the attorney said.
The $17 million Bloomfield Hollow project once proposed as a 1,000-guest venue is now pitched for 600 — with changes to landscaping, lighting, and security. But residents near Franklin and Square Lake roads say the tweaks don’t go far enough — still warning about noise, traffic, and property values.
"It's been 118 days since you tabled this development and asked Mr. Sklar to work with us. His response was a two-hour open house where Zach refused every single one of our major requests," Northcutt said.
However, after hours of testimony, the board voted to table the petition again so the developer can respond to concerns.
"I make a motion that the applicant's petition be tabled and that he be allowed to respond to the comments that were made tonight. Among those including screening walls, parking lot walls," said a member of the board.
"If they're showing you fraudulent things to get approved, how can you trust their promises that they're going to be good operators once they are approved?" Bagne said.
This battle has been brewing since February, when strong opposition prompted the board to shelve the first proposal. Now, the venue’s future still hangs in the balance — with another round of meetings expected.
