PALMYRA TWP. Voters in Palmyra Township can have the chance on Tuesday, Could 2, to simply accept or reject an modification to the Townships Photo voltaic Ordinance that might prohibit large-scale photo voltaic installations.
Utility scale means the mission would produce electrical energy for the ability grid. Utilities, corresponding to Shoppers Vitality or DTE Vitality, purchase energy from these initiatives and resell it to their customers.
The modification requires 330-foot setbacks from adjoining neighbors’ property strains and imposes sound and most lot protection limits.
A sure vote would imply most large-scale photo voltaic initiatives wouldn’t occur within the township, whereas a no vote would reject the modification that makes the photo voltaic ordinance so restrictive that almost all business photo voltaic firms wouldn’t be capable to. capable of arrange a viable and worthwhile mission. . The ordinance earlier than the modification had a 50 foot setback requirement and limitless lot protection.
Polling stations will likely be open from 7 a.m. to eight p.m. Tuesday at Palmyra City Corridor, 6490 Palmyra Street.
Palmyra Township Council is made up of 5 members: Supervisor Dave Pixley, Clerk Christine Whited, Treasurer Mark Koester, and Trustees Steve Papenhagen and Mark Crane. At a particular assembly on November 15, 2022, the board voted 4 to 1 to approve the modification. Pixley was the board member who voted towards the adjustments.
The least restrictive ordinance has been the work of a number of planning commissions earlier than. This final accomplished ordinance was created by former Planning Fee Chairman Pixley and his fee. The ordinance was upheld after a failed referendum led by Koester in 2018.
Fairly the alternative of this Tuesday’s election, in 2018, those that voted no had been towards utility-scale photo voltaic and those that voted sure had been for utility-scale photo voltaic.
Present Planning Fee Chair Deborah Comstock filed the petition to place the present referendum to the Could 2 poll.
After I organized the referendum, I visited many voters of Palmyra. Nearly all of them had been in favor of photo voltaic and the advantages it might carry to the municipality. …Photo voltaic tax income goes to all college districts within the space, the (Lenawee Center Faculty District), infrastructure initiatives, and total providers to a neighborhood. Everybody advantages from the income generated by solar energy, Comstock mentioned. Photo voltaic vitality is time-limited, whereas housing building shouldn’t be. Properties are on farmland without end, photo voltaic lasts 25-30 years. Having photo voltaic on a farm means there’s much less crop fertilization; much less tillage, conserving carbon dioxide out of the air; much less erosion; much less lack of topsoil resulting from energetic agriculture; and fewer extra fertilizer flowing into streams, rivers and lakes.
Palmyra resident Charles La Rose fears that large-scale photo voltaic initiatives will drive up vitality payments, negatively affecting individuals on mounted incomes, corresponding to low-income residents and the aged. He’s additionally frightened about declining meals manufacturing.
My concern is that the advantages will solely accrue to some landowners, quite than the neighborhood as a complete. The neighborhood at present advantages from agriculture as a complete; in comparison with land benefiting just a few house owners, La Rose mentioned. It’s acknowledged that new tax income will comply with the presence of photo voltaic farms, however traditionally colleges are funded by property taxes.
Jim Isley owns fifth-generation Dawn Farms in Palmyra Township, the place he grows corn and soybeans. He was additionally a Township Council Administrator for seven years in addition to a Township Supervisor for 17 years. His tenure as supervisor led to 2020.
You are all the time going to take a look at the trade or an asset to the township that may generate taxpayer {dollars}, which does not require lots of providers, Isley mentioned. As a township as a complete, photo voltaic invests loads in our township treasury and much more cash in our native college system. It requires only a few providers, no sewer, no water, no fireplace, no EMS. To me, this appears to be like like a win-win; a win for everybody. I obtain hire on my property for the usage of it and the municipality and the faculties profit from this.
For Isley, the most important concern is that of personal property rights.
They’ve made the necessities so strict that it is seemingly the photo voltaic firms will not need to proceed, and the producer will not take a look at them both. That makes photo voltaic uncompetitive, Isley mentioned.
Isley mentioned a number of photo voltaic builders have approached him, however he hasn’t responded and will not reply to them till he finds out what the township will enable landowners to do.
Dr. Jim Leonard, a Palmyra resident with 200 acres of land, a lot of it leased for corn and soybean manufacturing, is a semi-retired veterinarian.
Leonard’s grandfather bought the farm in 1929 and Leonard operated the property together with his father. He mentioned that rising up on the farm, he noticed his father usually struggling to make ends meet.
I favor alternative. I would not need it for me. I do not suppose I’d need that on our farm, however I want I might select that,” Leonard mentioned. I believe my father would have preferred to benefit from a program like photo voltaic if he had had the chance as a result of it was a battle on the time. In order that’s why I am for alternative.
Papenhagen mentioned he supported altering the zoning ordinance as a result of he felt it didn’t replicate the priorities of nearly all of voters.
The zoning ordinance modification ought to defend each the pursuits of residents who’re taking part within the mission in addition to those that should not, Papenhagen mentioned. The planning fee’s unique zoning ordinance didn’t embrace accountable measures for the elimination of buildings or cheap setbacks from the property strains of non-participating landowners. With this plan, a non-participating home may very well be surrounded on three sides by photo voltaic panels and don’t have any say within the mission.
ESA of Maitland, Florida has been working in Palmyra to develop a large-scale photo voltaic farm since 2020. The mission that ESA want to set up would energy greater than 20,000 properties a yr.
The order would exclude any business photo voltaic set up from being positioned within the township, mentioned Matt Drennan, senior director of growth for the ESA.
Most US photo voltaic installations are inbuilt rural areas as a result of constructing a photo voltaic set up requires open land with out environmental constraints in addition to entry to transmission infrastructure.
Photo voltaic initiatives might be phased out on the finish of their helpful life and the land might be returned to agricultural manufacturing. Farmers might doubtlessly obtain many years of steady revenue with out giving up land for everlasting growth.
The Michigan Township Affiliation recommends that townships have ordinances in place to make sure that all requests for such developments are aligned with the desires and wishes of communities, and that the township works with its lawyer on these issues, Jenn Fiedler, director of communications for the MTA, mentioned .
MTA has been concerned in discussions for greater than two years on laws involving non-obligatory cost in lieu of taxes for business photo voltaic panels (the payments would exempt gear from photo voltaic developments from private property tax state and exchange it with a PILT settlement), Fiedler mentioned. Townships would seemingly obtain solely a small portion of the whole taxes paid on these developments, whether or not or not there was a longtime photo voltaic vitality district with a PILT or if it was taxed in keeping with the tax fee tables of the state.
Crane mentioned Palmyra Township’s lawyer suggested council towards writing an order with the promise of income in thoughts.
I’m assured that the modification works for each taking part and non-participating landowners within the township. It will enable some large-scale photo voltaic purposes, however solely in sure areas and circumstances. We’re a rural neighborhood and lots of of our residents like the thought of staying that method, Crane mentioned. I do know photo voltaic firms need giant flat tracts of land to make the mission worthwhile, however that is not my job. In my view, this order works as a result of it provides each events a portion of what they need.
The MTA strongly opposed laws in 2020 requiring townships to supply a LTCP. A number of provisions have been included within the 2022 laws and new payments. Key components for townships are to make sure that native zoning authority is retained and that the choice exists for each the native unit and the applicant. The laws gives a township, metropolis or city, with the approval of the state tax fee, the flexibility to grant a 20-year property tax exemption to a professional photo voltaic vitality set up. The set up would then pay a particular tax primarily based on the electrical energy manufacturing capability of the set up.
Underneath the LTIP program for photo voltaic installations into consideration, every set up would have a tax charge of $7,000 per megawatt per yr, which Drennan says is a rise in ESA’s present tax liabilities.
ESA want to turn into a proud companion of the township of Palmyra, the place there can be job creation, sponsorships and applications that we want to take part in. If there is a chance to present again to organizations in Palmyra Township, we want an opportunity to assist it. , mentioned Drennan. ESA prides itself on being on the bottom, door-to-door builders. We sit with each adjoining neighbor in all of our initiatives, and Palmyra can be no totally different. We seek the advice of with every of them to higher perceive what we might do to make their visual view extra interesting to them. … ESA is a robust supporter of any farming or grazing practices which will happen throughout Mission operations.
