New zoning rules could stop solar panels in Fayette.

The Fayette Township Planning Commission passed a motion this week that could block the Heartwood II solar panel project.  

The body approved a drafted Compatible Renewable Energy Ordinance, which will now go before the Hillsdale County Planning Commission and the Fayette Township Board. The CREO, if adopted, could block the Heartwood II solar panel project that would take up 1,350 acres of farmland north of Hillsdale and east of Fayette Township. 

Ranger Power, the Chicago-based solar company planning the solar panel installation, is also building the Heartwood I solar project and has land-use rights for more than 2,000 acres of property in Allen, Fayette, and Litchfield townships for a potential Heartwood III solar project. 

“Adopting the CREO is the right move, but adopting a weaker, incomplete ordinance will give the appearance of control without actually protecting the township,” Hillsdale resident Steve Oleszkowicz, who leads local opposition to the project, said at the March 9 meeting. “Fayette Township has one opportunity to get this right before any more major projects are proposed or approved. I would strongly encourage the planning commission to strengthen this draft so it fully aligns with PA 233 while providing the strongest protections allowed under state law.” 

Michigan’s Public Act 233, a 2023 law signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, allows a state agency to override local opposition to renewable energy projects. A CREO allows a local authority to set its own rules for renewable energy projects so long as they are “compatible” with PA 233, making it more difficult — but not impossible — for the state to override. 

Attorney Seth Koches, a partner at Bauckham, Sparks, Thall, Seeber & Kaufman, P.C. in Portage, Michigan, is providing special counsel to the township. The firm represents more than 200 municipalities in Michigan and focuses on local regulation of renewable energy projects, Koches said. 

“My firm, we’ve been opposed to PA 233,” Koches said at the meeting. “We always felt that local control was more appropriate for something like this, but, again, the elected state legislators, they make the decisions.” 

Residents have expressed concerns at township meetings about potential environmental and health impacts of the solar panels, as well as possible consequences of natural disasters hitting solar farms. 

“We have enough of our agricultural land in solar right now,” Jonesville resident Sandra George said at the meeting. “I like to have my neighbors get to do what they want with their land, but I don’t want a tornado to come through and toss shards of solar on my land, which would be an act of God, which my insurance company won’t pay for, and the state’s not going to pay for it.” 

Brady Friss, the Ranger Power development manager overseeing the project, told The Collegian Monday the power company is “committed to working with the township.” 

“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 said in an interview. 

If the township denies Ranger Power a special land use permit, the company could still try to get the project approved through the state. Friss 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.”

Jonesville resident Chester Briner said the township waited too long to inform the public of the solar panels’ planned installation. 

“They’re trying to set up regulations to help people, but it’s not going to help as much as hopefully it helps other communities where this might come into their communities,” Briner said. “At my house alone, they’re going to be pretty much 180 degrees around my house, and it’s going to ruin the value of my property, and there should be some regulations that stop people from losing what we’ve worked so hard for. I lived there for 35 years, and all of a sudden now I’m gonna have solar panels.”

The Hillsdale County Planning Commission will review the CREO on March 18, after which it will pass it along to the township board.