Lowell Twp Planning Recap: Wedding Barns and Solar Farms

If you’re looking for an Aldi update, you won’t find it here. The store wasn’t on the Lowell Charter Township Planning Commission’s agenda last night. Instead, the body spent most of the nearly 90-minute meeting discussing wedding barns and renewable energy. All commissioners were present.

At the start of the meeting, the commission voted to keep the same slate of officers as last year:

• Dave Simmonds – Chair
• Mark Batchelor – Vice Chair
• Greg Forde – Secretary

Tip Top Gravel Annual Review

The Planning Commission met in an almost empty room with only two people in the audience.

“I am scanning the crowd and not seeing anyone with public comments on items not on the agenda,” Simmonds quipped during the public comments portion of the meeting.

The two people in the audience were there to represent Tip Top Gravel for an annual review of its special use permit for sand and gravel mining. The permit was first issued in 2018, and the company doesn’t foresee any changes in its operations.

It was noted that the company expects to extract all the gravel from its current mining spot over the next two seasons. However, it has “a lot” of sand still left to mine on the property.

Planning Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the annual report and find that the business is in compliance with its special use permit.

Mixed Feelings on Wedding Barns

At the last Lowell Township Board meeting, a resident asked about the possibility of using their agriculturally zoned property to host weddings. Simmonds, who had been present at that meeting, agreed to have the Planning Commission consider the matter.

During last night’s meeting, Simmonds said the Michigan Right to Farm Act would allow a farmer to rent out a barn as part of agritourism. However, for the property in question, the Right to Farm Act wouldn’t apply since it is not an active farm. It is simply zoned agricultural.

Brad Kotrba, a planning consultant to the township from the firm Williams & Works, said that Bowne Township had created an ordinance many years ago at the request of a property owner who wanted to host weddings in their barn, and it resulted in significant neighbor complaints.

“They came in and said they would do (events) six or seven times a year in the summer,” Kotrba stated. But instead, the property was used for weekly events throughout the year, and the owners added a restaurant, petting farm and concerts. As the business grew, its permit was adjusted to allow the new uses. “It turned into a commercial event center,” according to Kotrba.

However, that is not the only wedding barn in Bowne Township. “There is actually one place in the township that does do it well,” Kotrba said, noting that this business hosts infrequent events and makes sure to closely follow all its permit restrictions such as ending music by 10pm.

Forde thought the issues with the first business described by Kotrba could be avoided if the township had “taken a stand” and not made concessions when the provisions of the permit were initially overstepped.

“Are we inviting a big bunch of headache?” Batchelor asked as commissioners discussed the details of a potential ordinance.

But after some further discussion, it was decided that Kotbra would bring a sample ordinance before the commission for its review at a future meeting.

Commission Decides on “Workable Ordinance” for Renewable Energy

Continuing a discussion from last year, planning commissioners talked about their options for the township’s renewable energy ordinance. A state law was passed to create standards for solar, wind and battery storage facilities, and these override local regulations for sites such as solar farms.

Kotrba said there were four options:

1. Don’t do anything and direct energy providers to apply for a permit through the state. If approved by the state, the township would receive a one-time payment for $2,000 per megawatt of output from an approved facility.
2. Pass a “CREO ordinance” which is exactly the same as the state standards. In this case, the township would be eligible for a one-time payment of $5,000 per megawatt of output from an approved facility.
3. Pass a “workable ordinance” which is similar to state standards but might include some differences that utilities would be willing to work with. As with a CREO ordinance, this would entitle the township to a payment of $5,000 per megawatt of output from approved facilities.
4. Maintain an ordinance which is significantly different from the state requirements. Utility providers could report this to the state and that would eliminate the possibility of the township receiving any payment for facilities that receive approval from the state.

“The bottom line is that we have to do something to protect ourselves and give us a little more control,” Simmonds said.

The township ordinance currently addresses solar and wind facilities but not battery storage. The existing ordinance is also more generous than the state standards in some regards. For instance, the township ordinance only lists a 100-foot setback in places where the state standards call for a 300-foot setback.

“I would be in favor of adjusting our ordinance to be workable,” said Commissioner Bill Genovich.

Kotrba thought most of the current ordinance was already in line with the state standards. The one issue he saw was that the only properties eligible for solar farms under the current ordinance were in the floodplain. The state law says these facilities can be “constructed anywhere on any site.”

Commissioners discussed how they may be able to adjust the ordinance to allow renewable energy sites outside the floodplain while still maintaining control over which zoning districts they are located in.

It was decided that Kotrba would work on making the current ordinance “workable” and bring that back to the commission for further review at a future meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:22pm, and the next regular meeting of the Lowell Charter Township Planning Commission will be on Monday, Feb. 10, at 7pm in the Lowell Township Hall.