FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Citizens for Responsible Energy Development Southwest Michigan
Oshtemo Township, Michigan
June 4, 2026
Standing-Room-Only Crowd Turns Out for Community Conversation on PA 233 and Proposed S. Van Kal Battery Project
OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, MI — Over 100 residents from Oshtemo, Almena, Mattawan, and surrounding communities filled Oshtemo Township Hall on June 4, 2026 for a standing-room-only Community Conversation about PA 233 and the proposed battery energy storage system planned for S. Van Kal Street in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County.
The meeting followed a major neighborhood outreach effort by Citizens for Responsible Energy Development Southwest Michigan, whose neighborhood organizers mailed more than 2,500 postcards to residents within a two-mile radius of the proposed battery site. The response was clear: the community is paying attention, getting organized, and asking serious questions about whether an industrial-scale battery storage facility belongs in a rural residential area surrounded by homes, specialty farms, wells, wetlands, and sensitive natural resources.
The meeting opened with township leadership attempting to walk back prior statements that appeared to direct the planning director to write a “workable” ordinance for the developer — despite prior meeting footage and minutes indicating otherwise.
For more than an hour, residents raised concerns about noise, fire risk, visual impacts, property impacts, groundwater protection, emergency response, and the broader question of whether large industrial battery projects should be placed in rural residential and environmentally sensitive areas.
Residents also questioned why Oshtemo is not directing industrial-scale energy infrastructure toward areas already planned for heavier development. Several pointed to Oshtemo’s expanded industrial zone along the high-transmission corridor, where infrastructure already exists and where the township has encouraged industrial growth.
When residents asked about additional land-use issues, another serious problem became clear: Oshtemo’s large-scale solar ordinance also needs to be updated immediately. As written, the ordinance allows solar in industrial districts only for systems under 20 acres, while large-scale solar systems over 20 acres are excluded from industrial land. That structure pushes industrial-scale energy development toward rural residential and agricultural areas instead of allowing it where it makes far more sense — in industrial zones.
Residents also presented examples of Michigan townships that have adopted strong energy ordinances and made clear that rural residential areas are off limits to this type of development.
During the meeting, Oshtemo Township Board members stated that they are opposed to lithium-ion batteries. Residents raised an important follow-up question: is the township opposed only to lithium-ion battery chemistry, or is it opposed to industrial-scale battery energy storage systems in rural residential areas altogether?
That distinction matters. Newer battery technologies, including lithium iron phosphate batteries, are already being promoted for large-scale energy storage and they too carry risks with incidents becoming more common with them as their use increases. Residents asked whether the township recognizes that the larger issue is not one battery chemistry, but the improper siting of industrial battery infrastructure next to homes, farms, water resources, and sensitive environmental features.
Residents also noted that township discussions in December 2024 appeared to show support for battery energy storage development. At the prior meeting, township officials encouraged residents to contact Lansing about PA 233. However, many residents questioned how effective that advice would be when their Senator Sean McCann voted in favor of PA 233, and House Bills 4027 and 4028 — bills intended to restore local control over large-scale renewable energy and storage siting — have since passed the House and been referred to the Senate Committee on Government Operations he serves on. Oshtemo’s State Representative Matt Longjohn also voted against those bills in the House.
Board members stated that the developer was watching the meeting in real time. However, residents noted that, for the second meeting in a row, the public was not offered the same livestream access. Community members raised concerns about transparency, public access, and whether residents are being given the same opportunity to participate and observe as the applicant.
Although residents were told by board members that the Township Board meeting was not the place to ask questions, the neighborhood group disagrees. The Township Board will have the final say on Oshtemo’s energy ordinance, and residents have every right to ask questions, raise concerns, and expect answers from the elected officials who will ultimately vote on it.
It was announced that the June 11 Oshtemo Township Planning Commission meeting has been cancelled, although residents argued that meeting would have been the appropriate time to bring in the additional experts township officials had previously discussed. Instead, with an energy committee also being denied, residents will continue organizing.
Neighbors will gather at Little Pistol Farms, next door to the proposed battery site, on Monday, June 8, to share information, learn from one another, and mobilize against the improper request to place an industrial battery energy storage system in such an environmentally sensitive rural residential area.
This is not a question of whether energy infrastructure should exist. It is a question of responsible industrial project siting, transparency, and whether the rural residential areas Oshtemo’s own new Master Plan claims to value will be treated as acceptable collateral damage.
Citizens for Responsible Energy Development Southwest Michigan will continue working with residents, experts, local officials, and state decision-makers to ensure that community concerns are heard, documented, and taken seriously.
Additional information can be accessed at https://mi-safety.org and Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nooshtemobess
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