Genoa Township imposes six-month moratorium on commercial solar projects
GENOA TWP. — The Genoa Township Board of Trustees this week unanimously adopted a six-month moratorium to block applications for construction of ground-mounted or commercial solar projects.
"Knowing what's happening in other communities of course made me just think, 'Let's put a pause on it for now, take a look at our ordinance and go from there. Make sure that we've got everything in place so that maybe we can avoid controversy," Township Manager Kelly VanMarter said.
After attending a Michigan Townships Association meeting and watching a presentation by solar companies that included information on how various areas rate for solar energy potential, VanMarter looked into Genoa Township's rating.
"When I got back to the office the next day, I pulled up that mapping software and joined the program and was surprised to see that there was an area of our township that was rated as being 50%, so it was in the middle of the compatibility range, but still something that I thought, 'Oh, this feels a little bit more real now that I can see on a map that there's a quadrant of our community that could be suitable for it,'" she said.
MORE: What's happening with utility scale solar in Livingston County? Here's what we know.
Previously, the board passed a moratorium resolution and introduced a moratorium ordinance at its March 6 meeting, which put a 30-day moratorium in effect to give VanMarter and the township planning commission time to research and recommend potential ordinance changes regarding solar. Monday, the board extended the moratorium.
"We were advised by counsel that the law doesn't provide great guidance for when you do a moratorium, what the best method is for that. There's case law that supports both moratoriums by resolution and moratoriums by ordinance, so we kind of employed both methods," VanMarter said.
VanMarter said the planning commission now can work on ordinance language.
"I think the next step for us is determining a little bit more appropriately where we want the use. I know that most of the controversy seems to be with ag land," VanMarter said.
She said solar may be more appropriate in zoning districts such as research, technology or industrial land use rather than agricultural.
"I'd also like to have the planning commission consider reuse of commercial buildings or commercial parking lots for solar, like retrofitting developed property that we have now for the use rather than trying to take up agricultural land or open space," VanMarter said.
Once any potential zoning changes are made by the planning commission, the ordinance will be sent to the Livingston County Planning Commission for review and then will return to the township board for final approval.
Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord can be reached at palvord@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Genoa Township votes for six-month moratorium on solar
