Ilsa Minor | Daily Press Above, a sign marking the border of Escanaba Township near Wells Township is shown. Roughly half of Escanaba Township could soon become part of Cornell Township, which relies on the county for zoning.

ESCANABA — While it was not a topic of discussion on the Delta County Board of Commissioner’s agenda Tuesday, that didn’t stop the public from weighing in on a controversial annexation plan that would move roughly 19,000 acres from Escanaba Township to neighboring Cornell Township.

“If any of you are here tonight regarding the annexation issue, we won’t be discussing that tonight. The first time that’ll hit the docket is May 16,” Commission Chair Dave Moyle told a packed room at the Delta County Service Center.

The annexation came to the forefront following a full-page advertisement published in the Friday, April 14 edition of the Daily Press, showing a map of the proposed annexation area and a list of Escanaba Township and Cornell Township property owners, who are also township residents, that signed a petition to alter the township boundaries. The notice includes the names of at least 20 percent of resident landowners in each township.

“I can guarantee you I did not sign that petition,” said Escanaba Township resident Theresa Ross, who according to the notice, signed the petition on May 7, 2021.

The petition and notice is the first step in altering the township boundaries under the County Board of Commissioners Act, Act 156 of 1851. Under that act, the county commission can vacate, divide, or alter township boundaries if the board votes with a minimum of 3/5 of all elected members to do so after receiving a map and the required signatures.

“I live there. I’ve grown up there, and it is extremely out of line to take, forcefully, half of a township and throw them into another township that don’t even want us,” said Escanaba Township resident Barbie Clairmont, who currently serves on the Escanaba Township Planning Commission.

While some in the community have expressed surprise at the proposed new boundaries, the townships involved were made aware of the planned annexation as early as 2020. According to minutes from the March 21, 2021 Escanaba Township Board meeting, the township held back on a $38,600 road project on Triple Creek Road, near the Cornell Township border, “to see what the terms are of the annexation to Cornell.”

Much of the discussion Tuesday revolved around Commissioner Bob Barron, who, through a partnership, was one of 26 landowners included in the now-defunct Chandler Solar Project that was slated to be built by Orion Energy in the two townships.

On the advice of Then-Township Attorney Terry Burkhart, Escanaba Township scrapped its existing stand-alone solar ordinance in 2019 and began the process of creating solar regulations for inclusion in the township’s zoning ordinance. The process included an ad hoc committee, which drafted a more than 600-page report on solar energy production systems, and a moratorium on solar development that was extended multiple times.

In November of 2022, a 13-page amendment to the zoning ordinance was passed by the township board. The amendment uses an overlay district to restrict utility-scale solar development to less than 400 acres of land bordering Brampton Township, east of the Escanaba River. The vast majority of the land in the area where solar development could be allowed with a conditional use permit is encompassed in a single parcel owned by Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands, LLC.

The original proposal for the Chandler Solar Project included 1,250 acres. In September of 2019, it was scaled back to an 810-acre project during negotiations between Orion and the township. Neither proposal included land east of the Escanaba River.

While the township’s approved solar overlay district is not included in the proposed annexation, much of the property in the proposal was part of Orion’s 2019 site plan. As Cornell Township relies on county zoning, solar development is regulated by the much shorter and more permissive county rules that allow utility-scale solar energy systems as a permitted use by right in all commercial, industrial, resource production, and agricultural zones.

Citing the potential for his land to be developed, some in the public called on Barron to recuse himself.

“I think Bob Barron needs to recuse himself from that argument or that discussion, but knowing Bob Barron I think you should have given him the benefit of the doubt that he probably would have done that as opposed to labeling him,” Moyle told the audience Tuesday.

Barron did not comment on the annexation at any point during the meeting.

Despite the controversy over Barron, the proposal itself was not without support.

“I think this boundary change is better because of the possibility of this supposed solar project that may happen. This project is good because it’s going to have a lot of construction jobs, workers putting money into their pensions, it’s going to create a lot of taxes to … municipalities and also royalties to land owners,” said Escanaba Township resident and Former Township Supervisor Jake Nyquist, who urged the commissioners to vote in favor of the new boundary lines and noted the boundaries of the township have changed before.

According to a fact sheet issued by Orion on Sept. 30, 2019, the revised Chandler Solar Project would have generated more than $10 million in property taxes in the first 25 years and increased tax revenue for Escanaba Township by 28 percent in the first year when compared to taxes collected in 2018. It is unknown how a similar project would affect the tax base of Cornell under current economic conditions.