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CLINTON TOWNSHIP — After months of delays and investigations, an end is in sight.
On April 28, the Clinton Township Board of Trustees set Monday, June 2 as the latest day for a definitive vote on ITC’s Henry Ford Macomb Hospital power line project.
The board’s patience with the electrical transmission firm appears to be running thin after its continued instance on running lines along 19 Mile Road despite complaints from residents and evidence of a viable alternative route along Dalcoma Drive. ITC’s project is meant to provide power to the hospital’s expansion, which opened in May 2023.
“I was presented with a number of reasons why Dalcoma wasn’t possible,” Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem said. “I went about removing all of them. (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy) agreed to consider wetland mitigation if it was even necessary but they didn’t think it was. I hired a helicopter company to look at the issue of the helipad and we have definitive proof that those lines are not an impediment. Then there’s a drain easement from the (county) public works commissioner’s office. We met with the public works commissioner’s office and (Candice Miller) said co-locating is not going to be a problem … The only impediment is ITC’s willingness to actually submit the Dalcoma route, and the community college.”
With a smaller board than usual, trustees voted 4-1 to set the June 2 meeting as the final date for the township to exercise its approval for the project — though board attitudes appear set to reject the current ITC plan — using the meantime to secure formal support from Macomb Community College for the Dalcoma Drive route.
Township Attorney Jack Dolan encouraged the board to force the issue with the Macomb Community College Board of Trustees, either by going to one of its meetings or bringing the board to a Clinton Township meeting, after the school released a statement to WXYZ-TV stating they had not been approached by ITC about a Dalcoma Drive route.
“Right now, it’s clear to me that, by their statement that they constructed and put into the press, that (Macomb Community College) want(s) to fall back on the position that nobody has formally approached them, which is inconsistent with the evidence that we have and basically gives them a route to save face and say … ‘Nobody ever came to us,’” Dolan said remotely during the meeting. “I don’t want to give them that escape route and I don’t think this board does either … None of us should be in a situation where the community college isn’t pinned down on what their position is.”
Gieleghem said he had spoken with the president of the college and sent a letter to the college board. On May 7, Macomb Community College Executive Director of Communications and Public Relations Jeanne Nicol told C & G Newspapers that ITC had still not approached the college about Dalcoma Drive and that the college “has received a request from Clinton Township to be added to the May 21 Macomb Community College Board of Trustees meeting.”
Research by the township revealed a Dalcoma Drive route was present in earlier stages of the project but was replaced in favor of the 19 Mile Road route. Residents along the proposed 19 Mile Road route have been against the project citing health concerns as lines could be as close as 50 feet away from residences.
The township is able to approve or deny the project due to township ordinances, though a denial could lead to ITC pursuing state approval for the 19 Mile route via the Michigan Public Service Commission.
“We’ve maintained from November (2024) that we are very concerned about putting these lines 50 feet from the balconies of residential condo owners and this process to condemn, and it’s almost like (ITC is saying), ‘Hey, yeah, we’ll consider it, but no, we haven’t really considered it,’” Gieleghem said. “So, what’s it going to take? Do you want a denial so you can just go to the Public Service Commission and force it, or do you want to work with this community to come up with a route that works? That’s where we’re at.”
Trustee Dan Kress was the sole “no” vote. Kress has indicated a desire to expedite the denial of the project. Trustee Bruce Wade suggested holding a vote to approve a Dalcoma Drive route, but as a formal Dalcoma route does not exist, the vote would not resolve the issue.
East Town Village
Trustees approved several items related to the East Town Village mixed-use development, located near the corner of Elizabeth Road and North Groesbeck Highway. Trustees approved rezoning the site from “B-2 Community Business” to a planned unit development district.
Trustees then approved the final site plan which calls for 29 single-family units, 107 multifamily units across 13 buildings, 6,000 square feet of commercial space, a 112-unit senior living facility and a community center, all on a 21.5-acre site.
Liquor License Approval
Trustees narrowly approved awarding its final Class C quota liquor license to Mr. Miguel’s Mexican Grille & Cantina.
Approved by a 3-2 margin with Trustees Kress and Shannon King voting “no,” the census-based license will allow the restaurant to open its fifth and “flagship” location in The Mall at Partridge Creek. Should Mr. Miguel’s cease operations within the township, the license will be returned to the township.
