Marion Township Board hears concerns, says it will move ahead on solar zoning

HOWELL — After nearly three hours of public comments at Parker Middle School, the Marion Township Board Thursday held off on extending a solar project moratorium, but did say it will continue working on its township ordinance.

"We either don't extend the moratorium and, if we're allowed, we can sit on an application long enough that we can have the ordinance fixed in two months," township Trustee Les Andersen said. "(Attorney Mike Homier) told us there's a legal responsibility if we extend the moratorium, they could use it against us, so actually could take two months and if an application comes in, we could just sit on it for two until the ordinance is finished."

Marion Township, like others in Livingston County, is working on solar energy zoning rules because of interest by major energy suppliers that are considering placing large-scale utility solar farms in the area. Discussion about such projects has brought large groups of people to recent township board meetings in Conway, Cohoctah and now Marion Township.

"It's time to be renewing and regenerating our farmland, not allowing it to be taken from farmers under the guise of harvesting the sun. There are multitudes of other options for utility scale solar plants. The demonstrated need of our township is to keep on farming," Marion Township resident Erin Hamilton said during public comment Thursday.

The Marion Township board will meet again at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 at Parker Middle School to discuss the solar zoning and could consider extending its current solar development moratorium at that time, according to township Supervisor Bob Hanvey.

With Thursday's meeting moved to the middle school because of the expected large crowd, many of those in attendance urged the board to extend the moratorium before it expires March 31. Officials have said there are no pending solar project applications at this time.

Some people who oppose solar developments wore red shirts Thursday, which were being sold ahead of the meeting, that read, "No utility scale solar plants." Many of those in opposition shared their concerns, including what they say are long-term environmental impacts, lower property values, noise exposure, health effects and loss of unspoiled views.

"Noise really needs to be addressed here. It's significant. There's no definition of annoyance, electrical interference and solar farm product noise, nuisance or sound," said Cynthia Eades, a retired Air Force audiologist. "There's one sentence on sound (in the ordinance) and it references 55 decibels, which is not an adequate way of measuring sound for this type of production that you're talking about with solar."

She suggested the township have a professional industrial audiologist or sound engineer do a survey of the land to ensure residents are not affected by the noise.

After public comment, board members discussed zoning ordinance overlay proposals that would affect where solar projects could be sited with Homier and attorney John L. Gormley.

According to the Livingston County zoning map, most of the northern third of the township is zoned single family residential (suburb). The southern two-thirds is mostly rural residential (rural).

The township board is considering a new zoning overlay for two areas, according to Homier. The first is along the western edge of the township, next to electrical transmission lines along Pingree Road with an electrical substation to the west. The second area is straddled by electrical transmission lines in the center of the township, toward the eastern edge.

According to the Center of Land Use Education, overlay zoning is a tool that creates a special zoningdistrict over an existing zone(s) with special provisions, in addition to those in the underlying base zone. In this case, the overlay would address requirements for placing solar farms in those areas.

"An overlay district doesn't mandate that that land use actually occur there. We're not imposing anything," Homier said. "(A use) is permissive under a special land use permit that somebody could apply and put that land use on that property, subject to all of the conditions in the zoning ordinance itself and any reasonable conditions that might attach to it."

One resident asked about the next step.

"There were some conflicting suggestions that were made," Hanvey said. "We're gonna have to resolve these trade-offs and figure out which ones work for right now.

"We all want the same thing. We don't want solar in our community. What we are doing about it is how we get there," Hanvey said.

Andersen asked Homier if he believes the township board should send the ordinance back to the planning commission. Township Trustee Dan Lowe was opposed.

"I'd rather not see it go back to the planning commission. I mean, what got sent to us was not anywhere near what it should have been. The setbacks were ridiculous. The screening was ridiculous. The overlay, there was all kinds of stuff in that never should have been there," Lowe said.

Lowe was in favor of continuing to work on the ordinance and see how the timing works out.

"If we need to extend the moratorium, then extend it, but just continue to work on it. Try to get it done as quickly as we can and see how it works out timing wise," Lowe said.

What's happening in other places

The Cohoctah Township Board of Trustees also met Thursday and voted, 5-0, to approve changes to the township zoning ordinance and extend their moratorium for 12 months.

MORE: Cohoctah Planning Commission votes to recommend moratorium for commercial wind, solar projects

"The one that we adopted was actually an amendment to our zoning code," Cohoctah Township Supervisor Mark Fosdick said, "because it's part of the zoning code, the actual zoning ordinance, it would be more enforceable if we were challenged on the moratorium."

The moratorium was first put in place in December 2021 and would have expired March 31.

Fosdick said Homier, who also is their attorney, will work on a draft to review. After the township receives it, the draft will be sent to the planning commission.

The Conway Township Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Monday to consider a "proposed zoning amendment to impose a moratorium on the issuance of permits, licenses, or approvals for, or for any construction of, commercial wind and solar energy projects and to repeal section of the township zoning ordinance pertaining to wind energy and solar energy collectors."

MORE: Major solar development may be coming to Conway and Cohoctah townships

Currently there is a moratorium in Conway Township that continues until March, preventing applications for solar projects.

Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord can be reached at palvord@livingstondaily.com.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Marion Township decides to keep making changes to solar zoning