Ranger Power secured at least 2,000 acres for a potential third phase of panels
The same company seeking to build the Heartwood Solar II project in Fayette Township has been securing the land use rights to at least 2,000 acres near Hillsdale under the name “Heartwood Solar III LLC,” according to public records reviewed by The Collegian.
Ranger Power, a Chicago-based solar company, is currently setting up solar panels under its first Heartwood Solar I project in Fayette Township. It’s also pursuing a special land use permit from the Fayette planning commission for its second project, Heartwood Solar II. But the second effort has faced local opposition, and the planning commission is seeking to rezone the area to prohibit the installation of solar panels.
Since July 2023, an entity named “Heartwood Solar III LLC” has acquired land use rights for more than 2,000 acres of property in Allen, Fayette, and Litchfield townships. Most of this land was transferred to the company from “Heartwood Solar LLC.” Adam Cohen and Paul Harris, co-founders of Ranger Power, have signed agreements representing both entities.
Heartwood Solar III LLC now holds about 1,400 acres in Fayette Township, about 610 acres in Allen Township, and about 180 acres in Litchfield Township.
Ranger Power has not publicly announced a third phase of its Heartwood Solar project. A spokesperson for Ranger Power did not respond to requests for comment.
Steve Oleszkowicz, a Fayette Township resident who opposes the project through his group No Solar Fayette, mentioned the company’s acquisition of the land use rights for a third phase at a Feb. 10 meeting of the Fayette planning commission.
“You claim to be a fair, transparent, open, honest company that wants to be a good neighbor,” Oleszkowicz said at a Feb. 10 meeting of the Fayette planning commission. “I’d like you to move out of the neighborhood.”
Two easements and three assignment documents found in the Hillsdale County Register of Deeds involve the grantee “Heartwood Solar III LLC.” Two easements from July 2023 transfer land use rights from the Brian L. Marshall Family Living Trust and Eric J. Marshall Family Living Trust to Heartwood Solar III LLC. Three assignment documents — two from July 2024 and one from September 2024 — transfer land use rights from Heartwood Solar LLC to Heartwood Solar III LLC.
Local landowners can choose to lease their land to solar companies, but the projects in Fayette and other townships must receive special land use permits. The details of these contracts — including the length of the lease and the compensation from the company to the landowner — are usually confidential, and property owners often sign non-disclosure agreements.
Many residents — including State Rep. Jennifer Wortz, a Republican who represents parts of Hillsdale and Branch counties — have urged the Fayette Township board to adopt a Compatible Renewable Energy Ordinance, or CREO. This type of ordinance — Wortz, Oleszkowicz, and others have said — would let the township set its own zoning rules for building new renewable energy facilities.
If adopted, a CREO could make it more difficult for the company and state agency to override a potential rejection by Fayette Township’s planning commission.
“Make sure you have a CREO,” Wortz told the Fayette Township board at a Jan. 23 meeting. “That’s what I’m encouraging all my townships to do.”
Residents have repeatedly spoken against the projects during public comment at Fayette Township board and planning commission meetings, saying the project would disrupt the landscape and local wildlife.
Brady Friss, a Ranger Power development manager overseeing the Heartwood Solar project, said the company conducts extensive environmental reviews, including effects on water sources, before starting construction on the project.
“We do a lot of work early on to minimize concerns of wetland or threatened and endangered species habitat impacts,” Friss said. “The projects do field surveys of the whole project area.”
The planning commission will meet to consider the adoption of a CREO on March 9 in the Jonesville Middle School gym at 7 p.m.
If Fayette Township were to block the project and establish a CREO, the solar company could still go to the state and try to get the Heartwood II Project approved through that channel. Brady Friss, a Ranger Power development manager overseeing the project, told The Collegian Jan. 29 that it is not the company’s intention to do that, though it is not “a 100% certainty that it is totally off the table.”
“It is an option that the developer ultimately has to go through,” Friss said last month. “It is a very long, costly process that doesn’t always benefit everybody.”
