The Fayette Township Board adopted an ordinance to restrict the Heartwood II solar project at its April 1 meeting.
The township’s new Compatible Renewable Energy Ordinance allows the board to limit the installation of renewable energy projects. The Heartwood II project, if approved, would cover more than 1,380 acres of Fayette Township. The state can still override the township’s requests per Public Act 233, a 2023 law signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Brady Friss, a development manager from Ranger Power, told The Collegian in March that the company intends to comply with the ordinance, though it is not “a 100% certainty that it is totally off the table” for Ranger to get the project approved through the state.
“We’re bound by the local zoning regulations, and if we’re looking to permit under the local process, as we are, we’re bound by that, so when the ordinance is in effect, it goes through the channels it needs to go through, and that’s the ordinance we’ll have to follow,” Friss told The Collegian.
Ranger Power, the Chicago-based solar company planning the solar panel installation, is currently building the Heartwood I solar project and intends to build Heartwood II on the east side of the township and north of the City of Hillsdale, along U.S. 12 and White Road. The solar projects are part of the state of Michigan’s plan to rely on 100% clean energy sources by 2040.
Steve Oleszcowicz of Fayette Township said the approval of the Heartwood II solar panel project would result in 21% of the township — and 26% of the township’s agricultural land — being occupied by solar panels.
“At what point does cumulative conversion become a change in the character of a township?” Oleszcowicz said at the meeting. “Agricultural zoning exists for a reason to preserve farmland, to preserve rural character, to prevent incompatible industrial encroachment. This is no longer a special land use permit. This becomes a major land use pattern, and once land use patterns reach this scale, they are very difficult to reverse.”
Linda Mudge of Fayette Township said the approval of Heartwood II will hurt the environment and property values.
“We currently have a large-scale solar farm in this community, and another one will create even more displacement of local flora and fauna, as well as altered migration patterns, additional habitat loss, soil erosion, and thermal light effects on local wildlife. We need to preserve the rural landscape we have left instead of turning our community into an industrial hub,” Mudge said. “Please consider the land-use impacts before allowing the alteration of our landscape, decreased property values, and all that is at stake with this Heartwood II or any other proposed solar project. Enough is enough.”
Friss said the company conducts environmental reviews before installing the solar panels.
“We do a lot of work early on to minimize concerns of wetland or threatened and endangered species habitat impacts,” Friss told the Collegian in February. “The projects do field surveys of the whole project area.”
Fayette Township resident Nancy Ashton read an email at the April 1 meeting from fellow residents Scott and Angela Manifold that said the community “has already given up enough” agricultural land for the solar panel project.
“You [the township board] have received community input on this proposal and struggle to ensure transparency and allow residents to have our questions answered,” the email said. “It would be in our township’s best interest to advise against continuing with further industrial solar complexes.”
There will be a public hearing with the Fayette Township Board to further discuss the potential installation of the Heartwood II project at Jonesville High School April 16 at 7 p.m.
