Jordan Beck | Daily Press More than 75 people were in attendance at a meeting of the Escanaba Township Planning Commission Monday.

ESCANABA TOWNSHIP — After months of discussion, an ad hoc committee focusing on the future of solar power in Escanaba Township shared its recommendations with the Escanaba Township Planning Commission Monday.

In November 2019, nine applicants were appointed to the ad hoc committee and a mission statement for the committee was approved. The statement called for the ad hoc committee to explore and provide a report and recommendations to the planning commission on a proposed amendment to the township’s zoning ordinance dealing with solar power, as well as a related special land use application to operate an industrial solar farm or farms in the township.

The statement also listed some solar power-related issues the planning commission felt needed to be independently analyzed. Among these issues were sources of groundwater contamination in the township, the loss of farmland as a result of Orion Renewable Energy Group’s proposed Escanaba Township solar energy farm, security for the removal of solar farm improvements at the end of the project’s useful lifespan, aesthetic concerns, financial impacts, the project’s effects on wildlife and fire hazards related to the project.

Lawrence Klope, the ad hoc committee’s chair, spoke on behalf of the committee during a meeting of the planning commission Monday. He said the report submitted to the planning commission by the committee does not contain any proposed regulations.

“This is strictly a report with recommendations, and that’s all it is,” Klope said.

According to Klope, the ad hoc committee held about eight meetings in late 2019 and early 2020.

Most of the meetings were between three and four hours long, though some ran as long as seven hours.

Klope encouraged members of the planning commission and the public to take their own time and to thoroughly read the report.

“Take a look through it — (there’s) different sections; some may be pertinent to you, some may not,” he said.

Klope went on to talk about the structure of the report, which details the ad hoc committee’s recommendations on the topics it was asked to investigate and provides technical background information.

“If there was any sort of dissent, it was written much like a Supreme Court situation — you had the majority opinion, then you had the dissenting opinion,” he said.

About 10 copies of a packet containing the report itself and exhibits providing further information on the ad hoc committee’s findings were prepared for Monday’s meeting. Each packet was estimated to contain 500 pages.

Due to the packet’s sheer size and technical nature, its contents were not publicly discussed during the meeting. However, the planning commission voted to post a digital version of the packet on Escanaba Township’s official website — www.escanabatownship.org — Tuesday.

“This will be on the website sometime tomorrow morning — hopefully before noon,” Planning Commission Chair Jack Penegor said.

The process of officially reviewing the packet will kick off with a work session of the planning commission later in the month. The session will be open to the public, but it will not focus on the ad hoc committee’s recommendations. Instead, the goal of the session will be to set dates for two or more public hearings on the recommendations.

A motion to hold the work session on Tuesday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the township hall was approved by the planning commission. The sole vote against the motion was cast by Norman Fleury, who felt the commission should take more time before starting the review process.

“For the general public to chew on this, they should have some time to digest it,” he said.

At the end of Monday’s meeting, Penegor thanked the people who served on the ad hoc committee for their efforts.

“It was just a marvelous committee,” he said.