The May 13 meeting of the Van Buren Township planning commission was a raucous affair that lasted seven hours, but decisions were made.
One observer commented this must have been the longest planning commission meeting ever for the township.
After two hours of public comment by 33 speakers, the commission voted 2 ayes and 4 nays on a motion to deny approval of the preliminary site plan for the DTE/ITC high-voltage substation/switching station to service the new data center planned north of the I-94 North Service Drive and east of Haggerty Road.
This request for preliminary site plan approval had been postponed at the last meeting for more information.
The May 13 motion to deny failed. The motion to deny was brought by commissioner Jackson Pahle and seconded by Bernie Grant, who both have opposed the data center from the start.
A second motion, made by commission vice-chairman Jeff Jahr to approve the preliminary site plan was met by screams from the crowd so loud that the vote could not be heard and chairman Brian Cullin adjourned the meeting for ten minutes at 10:15 p.m.
When the commission went back into session, Cullin threatened to remove anyone from the meeting who interfered. Police officers had been on hand all evening.
The motion, with a caveat that there would be no eminent domain action or eviction for the ITC lines to reach the substation, passed 4-2, with yes votes by Jahr, Cullin, Medina Atchinson, and township board treasurer/board liaison Sharry Budd.. Commissioner Peter Creal was absent from the meeting.
For the first time in recent memory, the township attorney sat at the commission table.
Battery Energy Storage System
It took an hour and 37 minutes for the hostile crowd to give their public comments during a public hearing on a special land use request for a Battery Energy Storage System on 22.27 acres near the corner of Bemis and Rawsonville roads.
Agenda items calling for approval for the project, as well as preliminary site plan approval, were postponed to an upcoming meeting. This was just after midnight, after 37 more minutes of public comment and a complaint that the chairman shut down public comment.
DeBucks Agritourism
After a two-minute public hearing, with no negative comments, the requests by DeBuck Brothers Investments was handled immediately. Their requests had been moved to the top of the business agenda so the family wouldn’t have to sit through all the other business, but it took two hours to get to that point.
The commission voted to send to the township a recommendation for approval of special land use for its pre-existing agritourism use. They also voted to approve preliminary and final site plans for agritourism at 50240 Martz Rd.
Planet Oil
A request by applicant Bill Chami on behalf of Zachary Rowley to amend the approved site plan at 10645 Belleville Rd. reached the commission table at 12:13 a.m. After finding the changes did not comply with the ordinance, the project was postponed. The township and applicant will work out the details before coming back to the commission for approval.
Hotel Height Ordinance discussion
A discussion on an ordinance amendment to raise the height allowed for hotels was moved to a later meeting because it was 12:30 a.m.
Participants
Many of those protesting and coming up to the microphone to speak several times were from other locations than Van Buren Township, including Detroit, Oakland County, Milan, York Township, Augusta Woods, Sumpter Township (with a scarf over her face and sunglasses), and an announced “transgender” from Wayne County. The woman from York Township offered t-shirts for $20 each that read “Recall the Board.”