As Nicole Curtis’ followers await the November premiere of her three-hour HGTV particular, “Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue,” the restoration knowledgeable is main an more and more nasty struggle in opposition to a “monster developer” in her hometown of Lake Orion, Michigan — proper the place the brand new show was filmed.
Nicole Curtis Takes On Major Developer in Michigan
When the three-episode sequence “Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue” premieres on November 3, it’ll chronicle Curtis’ efforts to revive a 1904 lakeside cottage she purchased in 2014 and accomplished this yr. On Instagram, she has continuously shared glimpses of the completed home in Lake Orion, the place she grew up, together with a few of the challenges she and her workforce confronted whereas returning the house to its authentic glory.
But she’s additionally been sharing her efforts to maintain properties just like the lake home from being torn down by a neighborhood developer. No stranger to controversy or battle, Curtis hopped on a airplane from New York when she discovered a public listening to had been scheduled on August 1, 2022, about three proposed developments in Lake Orion, a city of three,000, desirous to confront the Commission. Curtis predicted on the time it might turn into her “loudest struggle but.”
Curtis joined a lot of residents involved about plans to let Michigan developer Moceri Homes raze a number of old properties alongside the lakeshore to construct flats, retail areas, and boat slips. The council chamber was full of residents that night, voicing their issues in regards to the financial and ecological impression of the proposed improvement. Curtis took to the rostrum twice, calling the plans “completely ridiculous” and questioning the legality of the fee’s course of.
Curtis then helped to spearhead a marketing campaign in opposition to Moceri Homes, leveraging social media, information stations, and native signage to attempt to encourage extra residents to talk up and strain the council to vote in opposition to the event.
In an interview with Detroit information station WXYZ, the event agency’s founder, Dominic Moceri, blasted Curtis’ efforts, saying, “Those that wish to unfold misinformation by Facebook and simply conjecture and have not seen the plans, have been in opposition to what they do not know.”
Nicole Curtis Says She’ll Keep Fighting Despite Approval of Development
Despite Curtis’ efforts, the council unanimously accredited two of the three developments in early October; the third venture is delayed as a result of it includes a marina with 100 boat slips and desires additional planning. Though Curtis was disenchanted by the vote, she vowed she’ll preserve preventing and is now backing a buddy, Riva Beatty, who’s campaigning to unseat one of many members of the council as a write-in candidate in November.
On October 8, Curtis took to social media to taunt Moceri and hearth up her followers. In her Instagram Stories, she shared a number of photographs of old homes that will probably be torn down, accusing Moceri of ignoring their historic worth and for calling properties she believes she may restore “too far gone to avoid wasting.”
“Come on, Dominic-cut the bull pucky…You’re workforce cannot deal with the reality,” she wrote over one picture after urging followers to put in writing and name the developer.
Over photographs of Detroit’s Ransom Gillis mansion, which she refurbished in 2015, Curtis wrote, “Who the f do you assume you are speaking to ???” and suggested Moceri to “verify your egos on the old door you kicked in.”
In a Facebook submit that very same day about her upcoming HGTV show, Curtis wrote, “Ironically, this 3 hour particular is airing as a monster developer has plans to demo 15 historic properties on this tiny city of mine. It’s insane that in spite of everything these years of proving many times that any constructing could be saved —We nonetheless watch handmade customized properties go into landfills.”
Two days later, Curtis advised the Detroit Free Press that the properties on the chopping block are historic treasures, even when some are deserted.
“We’ve achieved historic surveys on all these properties, which signifies that my workforce and myself have gone by way of them, assessed them, appeared for inside particulars which are intact, exterior particulars which are intact,” she mentioned.
Michael Lamb, a member of the Planning Commission and Village Council, mentioned regulating and historic buildings is exterior of their jurisdiction and that it is as much as the developer to suggest that type of safety. He additionally mentioned the city is “income starved” and hopes the proposed tasks will probably be good for the native economic system.
“Based on the suggestions of our planning marketing consultant, our engineering marketing consultant, and our lawyer and the evaluation of the Planning Commission, Moceri met all the necessities obligatory for web site plan approval for his two tasks,” he mentioned.
In an e-mail to the newspaper, Dominic Moceri mentioned not one of the properties that will probably be changed have been formally deemed historic, however that they do plan to reconstruct and improve two of the properties they’ve bought or plan to buy.
Curtis, in the meantime, has moved onto Wyoming, the place she’s refurbishing one other old residence, however has promised to maintain returning to Lake Orion to assist preserve the struggle going. “Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue” premieres November 3 at 9pm Eastern and Pacific on HGTV.
