At their Tuesday regular meeting, the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners approved a proposal from Progressive AE, Inc., in Grand Rapids, “to review and evaluate” the county’s special land use permit (SLUP) application to construct a telecommunications tower on Kitchen Road in Northport. The firm is being paid $5,300 for these services.
The county had hoped to start this project much sooner to provide better cellular coverage in Leelanau Township. The township and the county have been working on an intergovernmental agreement to build the tower for some time now. The township board committed $100,000 of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards this project back in March 2023.
It took over a year for both parties to agree on the language for this agreement, with the township approving the document at their Feb. 13, 2024, meeting. At the April 9 township board meeting, the board realized that the project had not gone through the proper review process through the planning commission.
The planning commission finally held a public hearing June 13. County Administrator Richard Lewis said that during this hearing, some township residents came forward with objections to the project. These concerns ranged from the height of the tower allegedly not being in character of the village, to supposed adverse health effects from its signals.
“After that, I started trying to reach out to hire a planner to review our application, to review the comments (or the document) that were made. Because for us, as a county, we owe it to make sure we provide the best information we can for that special land use permit,” Lewis said.
“As I thought about this over the weekend, if I could redo something, I would have done this before we submitted the application,” Lewis continued.
Lewis said the hope Progressive AE will provide an “honest review” of the project, so the county can address any problems with the tower’s SLUP application. According to executive documents, the firm will provide a review and recommendations by the end of the month, and will then meet with the interim administrator to determine how to proceed.
On June 13, the hearing on the Leelanau Township tower project adjourned with talks to continue at a later date. At the time of writing, a follow-up hearing has still not been scheduled.
