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"No new information has been provided," said commission chairman Tom Urman.
Ken Harrington proposes to build a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine at a hilltop site off River Road, not far from his residence. With blades at full stretch, the structure would stand 395 feet tall. He's been exploring a possible sale of energy from the turbine to a customer like a local electrical utility or the Odawa Casino Resort.
Harrington's proposed site for the generator has farm-forest zoning, a category in which he would need to obtain a special use permit in order to build that type of structure.
The project also would require a site of at least 40 acres. Harrington's property consists of just 28 acres, but he's noted that neighboring property owners have agreed to make enough land available through leases for him to meet the minimum.
Any position that Bear Creek takes on Harrington's request will serve as an advisory one for Emmet County officials, who have final say over zoning matters in the township.
Township planning commissioners noted that Harrington still needs to provide details of how the properties would be legally combined to meet the 40-acre minimum, as well as projections for the noise levels associated with the turbine's operation and other details.
Harrington didn't attend Wednesday's meeting because of a schedule conflict. In a telephone interview, he said he hopes to have all of the needed information available later this summer.
"We're still working on the punch list," he said.
One step Harrington said he still needs to complete is having the properties that would make up the turbine site surveyed. While he believes planning officials' request for this poses more of a cost than is necessary, "it's not something that's going to stop me from doing the project."
Harrington added that he plans to attend the Emmet County Planning Commission's July 2 meeting when his proposal will next be discussed.
At the suggestion of township supervisor Dennis Keiser, planning officials decided to tentatively plan an Aug. 12 visit to Mackinaw City, where two commercial wind turbines - each standing about 320 feet tall at full stretch - have been in operation for several years. This would give officials an opportunity to gauge the turbine's noise and visual impacts, along with the "flicker" effect which they can create in surrounding areas when sunlight hits moving blades.
Township officials said they'll look into arranging bus transportation to Mackinaw City, with opportunities for interested members of the public to reserve a bus seat.
Steve Bulman, who lives near Harrington's proposed wind turbine site, said he already has visited the area of the Mackinaw City turbines. With winds of 12-15 mph at that time, he said "they were quite loud."
Noting that the turbines also created a flicker effect on nearby hillsides, he said this phenomenon also is something significant to consider.
"Now that I know a little bit about them, they don't belong in residential communities," he said.
Keiser said the township also may want to consider sending a couple of representatives to the Thumb area, where numerous commercial wind generators have been installed in recent years. These are of a more recent design than the Mackinaw City generators, and likely would be more comparable in their operation to what Harrington proposes.
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