Comstock Township’s Planning Commission held a public hearing on the proposed Swan and Cygnet battery energy storage project, but reached no decision Thursday.
James Huston, lead developer at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), introduced the two-phase, 400-megawatt project at the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course, which the company has proposed since an earlier version near the new Comstock STEM Academy drew opposition. Comstock Public Schools brought in a third-party consultant that recommended at least a one-mile buffer between the district’s schools and the facility after reviewing the original site. The current Hickory Ridge location remains less than a mile from district schools, though farther than the original proposal.
The applicant is asking the commission for a waiver to the township’s battery storage ordinance, which requires facilities be built on at least 140 contiguous acres. Because the project is split into two separately owned components — Swan (16.95 acres) and Cygnet (22.27 acres) — the applicant argues the requirement should be waived, even though the two combined properties total more than 140 acres, since the acreage isn’t contiguous under one owner. The township’s outside review consultant flagged this as a threshold question the commission needs to resolve before evaluating the rest of the application.
The review also identified a sound compliance issue: unmitigated noise from the facility is projected to reach roughly 63 decibels at the property line during peak operations, above the township’s 55-decibel limit. The applicant has proposed a mitigation measure — a 14-foot-tall, roughly 3,370-foot-long wooden sound wall — that its consultants estimate would bring noise levels into compliance.
Under the current proposal, CIP would designate about 105 acres of the property as open space, potentially transferred to the township for park or recreational use, the same acreage question the Parks Board discussed at its August 10 meeting. The project would also require a 20-year decommissioning plan with financial assurance held for the township’s benefit, and an annual host agreement payment of $825 per megawatt of capacity for 20 years.
More than two hours of public comment followed the presentation, with residents split between support and opposition. One resident argued the township shouldn’t accept donated land from a utility company it may later need to maintain at its own cost, raised concerns about the project’s continued proximity to schools despite the relocation, and referenced CIP’s involvement in legal disputes in other jurisdictions. Other residents raised questions about evacuation planning, water usage, noise, and trust that the project’s terms would be enforced as written over time. Several speakers said they appreciated the commission’s responsiveness and the applicant’s cooperation with the township’s review process even while remaining skeptical of the project itself.
Commissioners clarified a point of process for the audience: the Planning Commission doesn’t have final authority over the project. It will make a recommendation to the Township Board, which holds the ultimate decision. Commissioners also explained the reasoning behind requiring greater setback distances from schools than from homes as schools require more time to evacuate, and fielded questions about whether the fire department has discussed evacuation planning directly with the school district. Fire officials said specific evacuation decisions would be made in real time by incident command based on conditions during any actual emergency, but confirmed the department can help the district develop its own evacuation plan in advance.
What’s next: The commission closed the public hearing but did not vote, saying discussion will continue at a future meeting. Commissioners requested additional information, including further detail from the township assessor on how the facility would be taxed.
