VBT Environmental Commission to rewrite ordinance on coal tar

The Van Buren Township Environmental Commission at its regular meeting Oct. 19 directed Matthew Best to rewrite the coal tar ordinance, adding registration of contractors, prohibitions, costs, and civil infractions for violations.
Also, while the current VBT ordinance bans applications containing 1% coal tar or more, the commission wants that reduced to .1%.
The commission discussed at length what other communities are putting on for fines and decided to get local asphalt appliers to comply the ordinance needed some teeth.
Last December, the VBT Board of Trustees passed the ordinance recommended by the Environmental Commission and became the first community in the state to ban coal tar.
Since then, other communities have banned the substance, including Scio Township, Ann Arbor, Hamburg Township, Dexter, and Spring Lake Township.
Best, the VBT deputy director of planning and economic development, said when he worked on last year’s ordinance he was told not to put any fines in the ordinance and that it would be an educational tool to teach residents about the hazards of coal tar.
Best said VBT’s software is able to do registrations of contractors and keep documents on file. He said Police Lt. Charles Bazzy is working on changing punishments for ordinance violations from misdemeanors, handled by the court, to civil infractions, that are handled by the municipalities.
Township Trustee Jeff Jahr, who was at his last meeting after serving on the commission for 16 years, noted the commission is running out of season for asphalt paving so it would be good to get the ordinance on the books by next spring.
Trustee Jahr did not run for reelection to the township board, so he will no longer be the board’s liaison to the commission. The commission has two vacancies besides the liaison and so commission members have been urging Jahr to come back to the commission as a citizen appointee.
Jahr said the township needs to put on an educational campaign to explain the new ordinance.
Commission chairman David Brownlee said the brochures on coal tar need to be put into mailings for residents. Best said the township never got the brochures from the Huron River Watershed Council, but he will get them.
In other business at the one hour and 45-minute meeting, the commission:
• Held its annual election, reelecting by acclimation chairman Brownlee and vice chairman Norm DeBuck;
• Heard Best report on the Lakeshore Management Workgroup that has been working for the last two months and at its last meeting moved to take the document to the township attorney. The attorney gave it the green light to present to the planning commission, which will be done Nov. 9 or in December. Best said changes to the proposed ordinance came from the lakeside residents who tirelessly worked to get a document they could agree on. “That’s democracy working the way it should,” DeBuck said;
• Discussed pollinators and habitat for pollinators. It’s “putting green back into the gray” for pollinators, Best said. “We’re always looking to add green and the VBT downtown has greened, thanks to the efforts of the DDA and township board,” he said. He said if you drive through other non-traditional downtowns, you don’t see the green that is in VBT. He said Mayser Polymer has put green around its new pond in the industrial area, which will take care of a square mile of pollinators. “When the next development comes along, we’ll put in more green.” He said the south side of the township Master Plan is different because it is being kept rural. Best said in Berkley there was no green (lawns don’t count) and so there was a project to assist residents to make pollinator pockets and after a few years it covered the whole community. Best said in another town they had a native plant seed day when they handed out bags of seed to create pollinator pockets. More information on pollinators can be found at www.pollinator.org ;
• Listened to Best’s presentation on Eurasian Milfoil in Belleville Lake, the same talk he recently gave to the planning commission. He said his full presentation is on the Van Buren Township website www.vanburen-mi.org . He told of options available to fight the milfoil, but none of them are suitable for Belleville Lake because of the river running through it and the high annual cost. “If we had a pathway, we would do it,” Best said.