Michigan Localities Fight to Keep Zoning Control Over Large Wind and Solar Developments

A new Michigan law slated to take effect on Nov. 29 has triggered a legal battle over the right of communities to regulate renewable energy projects within their jurisdictions.
“None of our clients have precluded these facilities. They have not banned them outright. They are fighting for a voice,” said Homier in an interview with The Epoch Times.
Homier told The Epoch Times that his clients are struggling to retain jurisdiction over time and space in the face of the rapidly expanding new land use in which the “top-down, one-size-fits-all approach does not work.”
Climate advocates said the new law is a model answer to the familiar “not-in-my-backyard” argument often put forward by project opponents seeking to block new renewable energy developments in their communities.
Homier told The Epoch Times township government is “the closest to their constituents of all the levels of government,” and thus it knows what is best for its community.
Homier said the Oct. 10 MPSC order is a misinterpretation of portions of PA 233.
“The MPSC ruling is viewed by many local leaders as a direct encroachment on home rule and an attempt to centralize power at the state level, disregarding the preferences and concerns of local communities,” he wrote in the statement.
Homier further asserted that the MPSC’s decision “violates both state law and constitutional principles of local governance.”
All parties in the appeal accept that PA 233 provides the maximum limits a local government may impose on developers in areas like lighting, height, noise, setbacks, and fencing.
The disagreement centers largely on MPSC’s interpretation that the law prohibits local authorities from imposing additional zoning regulations on utility-scale renewable energy projects beyond those enumerated in PA 233.
Homier wrote in the statement that the MPSC’s decision “threatens to leave [his clients] powerless in the face of large-scale renewable energy projects.”
Homier said in the statement the municipalities’ appeal is an attempt to hold the MPSC to promises made by the Legislature to local governments that they would have a role in project siting decisions.
“The legal action is expected to draw attention from stakeholders across Michigan as both local governments and renewable energy advocates await the outcome of this appeal,” he said.
An MPSC spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation and pointed The Epoch Times to the commission’s previous orders.