The Comstock Township Board voted to apply for a state grant connected to a previously approved battery energy storage project in the township.
Township officials said the project was earlier exempted from the township’s moratorium on such projects, allowing it to move forward through local and state permitting review. Under state law, a developer of a large-scale battery storage or renewable energy project can choose to bypass local zoning entirely and go through the state’s own siting process instead, which officials said carries weaker standards than what Comstock’s local ordinance requires. To keep the project under local review rather than losing that authority to the state, township officials said they negotiated stricter local standards with the developer, including expanding a required buffer from “sensitive areas” such as schools from an original 500 feet to 2,000 feet, well beyond the state’s 300-foot minimum, and requiring noise limits to be measured at the property line rather than at the building itself.
Keeping the project under local rather than state review also made the township eligible for Michigan’s Renewables Ready Communities Award, a program administered by the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) that pays local governments a set incentive per megawatt for locally permitted wind, solar, or battery storage projects. Officials also said the locally negotiated host community agreement provides the township recurring annual payments, rather than the single lump-sum payment the state process would have provided.
The board voted unanimously to authorize Township Supervisor Ben Martin to submit the grant application. Trustees discussed several possible uses for the funds, including severe weather warning sirens, general infrastructure maintenance, and public safety improvements, but were clear that the intended use isn’t finalized and will go through additional public input before being locked in.
The vote followed public comment from residents raising safety and environmental concerns about the battery storage project.
