My phone conversations with the local governments of Hazelton Township and Venice Township

When I called Venice Township, they claimed that the noise level (more specifically the decibel level) from the solar farm did not exceed what was in the agreement between Ranger Power, Venice Township and the state of Michigan. Venice Township also communicated to me that the solar farm did not negatively affect their property value or home value at all (if anything their property value actually went up) to the point they can still sell homes right across the street from the solar farm. Special use permits were mandated that water needed to be tested regularly for risk of flooding. I consistently heard that water pollution is not an issue at all. When it came to whether solar panels would kill the wildlife such as birds and deer, Venice Township said that they had nothing to verify that. Deer can go underneath the solar panels because they are high enough from the ground and some animals even prefer to live near the solar panels because it isn’t mowed (Treasurer 2025). When I called the drain commissioner of Venice Township (or of Shiawassee County) I first heard that there weren’t any complaints of flooding in regard to the solar farm that they were aware of. I then talked to somebody who said that they were aware of a minor issue regarding flooding in which they had to get in contact with the right person to work on fixing the issue and clarified that there were no major problems regarding flooding. They also stated that a new drain commissioner was recently elected and so as a result he is going to have limited knowledge of any flooding prior to when he was elected. Although he did say that he wasn’t aware of any flooding issues because of the solar farms since he was first elected (Drain Commissioner 2025).

Sources:

Phone conversation with Venice Township Drain Commissioner. 2025.

Phone conversation with Venice Township Treasurer. 2025.