ESCANABA TOWNSHIP — Plans for a large-scale solar generation facility in Escanaba Township are on hold following a decisions by the township’s board to impose a moratorium on large solar generation facilities.

The decision was made through an ordinance passed by the board at a special meeting, Jan. 25. However, attendance at the virtually-held special meeting was low because notice for the meeting was only posted on the township’s website and at the hall the day prior to the meeting, which was a Sunday.

Both board and planning commission meetings with discussions of solar in the township have been heavily attended and often heated, with in-person meetings drawing well over 150 residents prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to better inform the public of the board’s decision to enact the moratorium, the township’s planning commission announced the board’s actions during its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 1.

“I wanted to bring up if nobody or anybody was at the meeting last month for the township board, the township board enacted a one-year moratorium on … any amendments or ordinances based on the solar,” said Planning Commission Chair Dean Van Loon. “So, we’re going to take this time to study if in fact solar will fit in our township and where the best locations would be for it. So I … thank the township board for taking that step so that we can do a good, thorough job of investigating what can be done here for the solar.”

Technically, the township could allow solar facilities in the township before the one-year period is up if the planning commission and board come to an agreement on regulating the facilities. A resolution adopted by the board at the Jan. 25 meeting states the moratorium applies to the issuance of permits, licenses, and approval for any property in the township to be used for a large solar energy facility for 12 months, or until the township considers whether amendments to its zoning ordinance regulating the facilities is made and take effect, whichever comes first.

The ordinance itself, titled “An Ordinance to Impose a Moratorium on the Issuance of Permits, Licenses, or Approvals for, or for Any Construction of, Large Solar Energy Facilities,” was not posted on the township’s website with the township’s other ordinances as of Tuesday afternoon. However, the resolution adopting the ordinance is published on page 3A of today’s Daily Press. Only Township Clerk Patricia Beauchamp is recorded as voting against the resolution.

The moratorium pumps the breaks on the Chandler Solar Project, a large-scale solar farm planned by Orion Renewable Energy Group. In 2019, the township board approved a stand-alone ordinance that would have allowed the plan to move forward, but it was later determined the ordinance was insufficient and any regulations on solar would need to be included in the township’s zoning ordinance by then-township attorney Terry Burkhart.

Burkhart was replaced as the township’s municipal attorney by Attorney Laura Genovich of law firm Foster Swift’s Grand Rapids branch at the Jan. 11 regular board meeting. According to draft minutes of the Jan. 25 meeting posted on the township’s website, the moratorium was proposed by Genovich.

Most of the work to create a zoning ordinance amendment has fallen on the planning commission, which even after the moratorium was announced continued its review of a more than 500-page report created by an ad hoc committee appointed to research the issue. Shake-ups at the planning commission level prompted by resignations, members of the planning commission being elected to the township board, missing planning commission bylaws, lack of evidence of a proper newspaper posting of the ordinance creating the planning commission, lost term start and end dates for members, a temporary appointment of too many planning commission members, and ultimately, too few members serving on the commission prompted the township board to reappoint a new class of planning commissioners in December. However, the new planning commissioners were either prior members of the commission or have been active in public participation revolving around solar and are familiar with the issue.

At the Dec. 14, 2020 township board meeting, Orion announced it was making adjustments to its plan that would have shrank the size of the project by about 30 percent, bringing the total size of the solar farm to about 500 acres. A representative of Orion was logged-in to Monday’s planning commission virtual meeting but did not speak during the meeting.