December 12, 2012
Michigan

Ordinance changes up for referendum

By Andy Barrand | December 12, 2012 | www.hillsdale.net

READING – The Reading Township Board of Trustees on MOnday night approved an ordinance to amend article 13 of the zoning ordinance of Reading Township. Citizens of Reading Township will have the opportunity to cast their votes on the ordinance as a referendum will be on the Feb. 26, 2013 ballot. Article 13 deals with the township’s wind project ordinance, which was adopted a couple of years ago. The board of trustees made changes to the ordinance at the request of Duke Energy, which was looking to develop The Hillsdale Wind Power Project in Reading Township. In October those changes were approved by the trustees. Township residents, however, filed a petition to have the changes put up for vote with a referendum. Greg Green, a member of the Reading Township Planning Commission, said some 240 signatures were collected. Duke Energy indefinitely suspended the wind power project the next week after the petition was filed. Green said that if voters vote the referendum down the ordinance will stay the same as it was originally written. “There was significant opposition to the changes,” Green said. “Most people on both sides of the issue wanted to see it go to a referendum.” The new ordinance would change the way sound from the turbines is measured. Duke Energy wanted sound to be measured on an average decibel level, while the township’s ordinance had a set noise level. The changes would also measure the decibel level at any dwelling or mobile home existing at the time not from the property line. It would remove language prohibiting the operation of a wind energy facility when an audible tone is present and results are in a compliance. “I think these changes are huge,” Green said. “As a member of the planning commission I had a different take on the ordinance. I was interested in my duty to protect the health and safety of our community.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/12/12/ordinance-changes-up-for-referendum/