FAYETTE TWP., MI — Amid vocal opposition to a second proposed utility-scale solar farm, the Fayette Township board has decided to enlist a Portage law firm to advise them on zoning ordinances or other project-related matters.
The board, responding to resident demands for competent independent counsel to ensure local control, settled Monday, Feb. 9, on municipal attorneys Bauckham, Thall, Seeber, Kaufman and Koches PC.
Trustee Alfred DuBois said the cost will depend on hours worked, township action and other factors, and the details are yet to be determined. “We got to meet with the attorney and discuss all that stuff with the board and the attorney.”
All three sitting board members voted in favor. Supervisor Nate Baker recused himself because property his father Dale Baker owns and the family farms is part of the proposed project.
Compared to other firms, their fees are “reasonable,” DuBois, who did not have specific numbers, said Monday at Jonesville High School, reserved for the last several township meetings to accommodate unusually large crowds.
At previous meetings, streams of residents went to the microphone to note their concerns and fears – largely environmental and aesthetic – about the possible 140-megawatt solar farm, which would involve about 1,350 acres of parcels east of Jonesville.
Chicago-based Ranger Power wants to build Heartwood Solar II roughly between U.S. 12 and North Adams Road and west of Half Moon Lake Road.
Heartwood Solar I already is under construction in the area of Jonesville and Bunn roads.
The two projects represent what would be a combined investment of about $300 million and completed, they would generate millions in property taxes, Ranger Power has said.
Once in operation, the panels are quiet and do not produce hazardous emissions or bring about harmful runoff, according to a Ranger Power representative.
About 60 people attended the Monday meeting and fewer residents made public comments than at previous meetings.
“The residents of Fayette Township have been clear. We are not asking for obstruction. We are asking for process protection and accountability,” said township resident Carrie Oleszkowicz, who lives on Half Moon Lake Road. “We want development handled lawfully, cautiously and on our terms. Not rushed, not pressured, and not outsourced to outside interests.”
She advocated for an alternative law firm, but the board had already made its decision.
David Danford, who lives on Moore Road, noted the board should allow for public comment at the start of the meeting and not at the end so the board could consider what people have to say ahead of votes.
He suggested too that the township, which does not have a website, post its agendas in advance of meetings.
Danford and another resident, Steve Oleszkowicz, have been leaders in the resistance.
Steve Oleszkowicz, who also lives on Half Moon Lake Road, noted “real concerns” about property value erosion. “Once that exposure exists, it does not disappear, it compounds. At that point, the question is no longer whether risk exists. The question becomes whether the township took reasonable steps to mitigate it,” he said.
Steve Oleszkowicz said as the township proceeds with “inadequate counsel,” the board risks being seen, rightly or wrongly, as having exposed the community to “preventable harm.”
Residents want the township to establish a compatible renewable energy ordinance, which provides for the development of large energy facilities within the local unit of government.
Without one, a developer could, under a hotly debated 2023 law, go directly to the Michigan Public Service Commission and apply for state review.
Ranger Power has said it wants to permit the project locally.
It has applied for a special use permit in the township. The permit was to be reviewed by the zoning administrator, DuBois, who resigned for the position Monday.
It came to his attention he could not, by the township’s zoning book, serve as the administrator and on the township board, he said Monday, and the township board did not establish or discuss his replacement.
If the township changes the requirement, he will return to the role if the board wants him to do so, he said after the meeting.
He’s been doing the job about 25 years, he said.
The township planning commission has been working on updating its zoning regulations for the last couple years, he and others said. This has not been done since Jonesville, once a village, became a city and separated from the township, which surrounds it, about 12 years ago.
Planning commissioners have not considered Ranger Power’s application.
The commission is to have a special meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the high school.
Danielle Salisbury is editor at The Ann Arbor News and the Jackson Citizen Patriot. She worked from 2007 to 2018 as a public safety reporter in Jackson, where she received multiple awards for her enterprise and… more
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