Thursday Hearing: Your Chance to Help Protect Fellow Residents
Dear Residents,
The privilege of serving as your Clinton Township Supervisor is an honor. I know that honor also comes with an incredible amount of responsibility. First among them is standing up for your, our community, and all of our residents. I take that responsibility seriously.
I am reaching out to ask you for your help in defending our community from powerful interests that are using (for all intents and purposes) public resources to trample on residents in the community.
WE NEED YOUR HELP IN SPEAKING OUT AGAINST ITC AND THEIR PLANS TO TRAMPLE ON THE PROPERTY RIGHTS OF CLINTON TOWNSHIP RESIDENTS
WHEN: Thursday, March 26, 2026 from 1 to 7 PM
WHERE: ITC Public Hearing at the Italian American Cultural Center, 43843 Romeo Plank Rd., Clinton Township, MI 48038
REGARDING: ITC Shrine Project, that will place High Transmission Lines down 19 Mile Road—or an alternate route, located underground along Dalcoma Drive.
Want to share your Comments or ask Questions Online?
Please go to: https://www.itcshrine.com
By speaking out, we can make a difference on behalf of our Neighbors and our Community!
At the core of this issue is a simple principle:
High Power Transmission lines should never be placed 50’ from existing residential homes!
That is the stance that I’ve taken as Clinton Township Supervisor, and it has ultimately been supported by a strong majority of the Clinton Township Board of Trustees.
ITC, otherwise known as International Transmission Company, is a privately-held publicly utility electric transmission company that is trying to run high-transmission power liens down 19 Mile Road, less than fifty feet from residential, second floor condo owners, both eroding the property values of all of the residential homes in the Westchester Village Condo community and the future development potential of a thriving economic corridor in desperate need of more investment.
When the Township stood up for these residents and voted the project down, ITC sent attorneys to the Macomb County Circuit Court. In addition to pending condemnation of private property from homeowners and businesses, as well as township property for easement rights, they filed two additional lawsuits: (1) asking the court to overturn the Township’s denial, and (2) challenging the Township’s adoption of an Essential Service Ordinance that requires utility providers to seek approval from the Township before installing above-ground infrastructure.
Additionally, ITC is in the process of seeking approval of this route along 19 Mile Road under a state law that grants ultimate authority for placement of powerlines to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). As part of ITC’s application to the MPSC, they must conduct an additional study, present an alternative route, and schedule public hearings that provide all residents the opportunity to provide comment.
Background & History
At issue is how to get additional and redundant electrical power to the new tower completed by Henry Ford Hospital Macomb. During construction, discussions were on-going between the hospital, DTE, ITC, Macomb Community College, Clinton Township officials and others. While previously serving as Clinton Township Treasurer, I was aware of these discussions but not invited to participate in them.
The day after the election but prior to assuming the role of Township Supervisor, I attended a meeting at the hospital, I was lobbied to approve the 19 Mile Road Route. With a dismissive tone, they shared the high-tech basis for their conclusions, and with almost surgical-like precision, a carrot and stick approach stressed the critical sense of urgency (lives were on the line!?). While the meeting was cordial, standing hairs on the back of my neck convinced me to dig deeper on this issue!
My appreciation for the inherited group of Township Directors grew when I learned that in spite of political support signals from the previous administration, staff dutifully raised the flags on behalf of condo-owners, along with requesting, and then presenting alternative routes to ITC, most notably, an above ground route on Dalcoma Drive.
Emboldened by a more research, a tense discussion unfolded during a follow-up virtual meeting when the “experts” asserted that state environmental regulators would “never permit the placement of these power lines down Dalcoma,” because of “wetlands” on Macomb Community College property adjacent to Dalcoma Drive. I questioned how it was possible to “actually build Dalcoma Drive, nearly 15 years early (for the stated purpose of serving both the Hospital and MCC) if state regulators would never allow
wetland mitigation … surely an actual road is a far more intensive use than utility poles?”
Claims
ITC continued to make unsubstantiated and false claims as to why the only viable option was 19 Mile Rd. The Township, one-by-one, methodically disputed those claims. They are as follows:
Claim One—19 Mile is the only viable route because state environmental regulators will not allow wetland mitigation.
Response: Township officials set up their own meeting with EGLE and
outlined residential impact. EGLE reps. toured the Dalcoma Route and were
unable to identify wetlands along the roadway. EGLE reps then responded to
the Township by email asserting to ITC that any submittal of the Dalcoma
Route would be evaluated, rather than dismissed, agreeing to work with the
company if wetland mitigation was necessary.
Claim Two—The Dalcoma Route is not possible because it will interfere with emergency helicopter service for the Hospital.
Response: The township hired, an expert helicopter pilot/consultant, who
concluded that because of existing impediments like light poles and the
helipad’s proximity to the building, the current location already requires a
steep dissent and the Dalcoma Route, locating utility lines more than 300
yards away, actually present less risk than the existing impediments.
Claim Three—Locating the power-lines down-Dalcoma would require the ‘taking’ of too-much college property.
Response: The Township reached out to Macomb County Public Works
Commissioner to inquire about the possibility of co-locating in the existing
easement of the Meitz Drain that is an open stream/drain under the
Commissioner’s jurisdiction.
Commissioner Miller reviewed the situation, met with ITC, and communicated
that she would work with the company to allow for co-location of the poles in the drain
easement. As a result, very little usable college property would be required.
Claim Four—(Made by MCC Administration)—The College is opposed to any agreement with ITC on their property because it would interfere with the College’s future expansion plans.
Response: The front face of the college campus is Hall Road and Garfield,
and Dalcoma is a backroad where salt and maintenance sheds are located.
In its heyday, MCC enrollment hovered around 40,000 students. Current
enrollment is just over 16,000. In a meeting with College President
Jim Sawyer, the township requested the college’s Master Plan, which revealed
that other than a conceptual rendering showing parking lots where the power
lines would be placed, no budget or concrete plans for expansion
exist. Further, a Freedom of Information Act request reveals that
the college’s stated opposition is for ‘aesthetic reasons.
Claim Five—According to ITC, 19 Mile Road is the original route and the only route that has really ever been in consideration.
Response: The same FOIA request for public records from the college
provides emails where hospital representatives are lobbying the college for
an agreement to place these power lines down Dalcoma Drive. ITC
representatives and their paid consultants are CC’d on these emails. The
emails also reveal the College’s opposition to the Dalcoma route, along with
the beginning framing of their legal strategy to fight the issue in court. This
suggests to me that ITC simply abandoned the Dalcoma Route after
concluding it is way easier to run roughshod over the Township and its
residential property owners than fight the college and their high-priced
lawyers.
The MPSC Process
Another issue of concern is the bait-and-switch approach being employed by ITC in the presentation of an alternative route, as required by the MPSC. During debate before the Township Board of Trustees, ITC officials claimed, when asked about locating the lines underground, (paraphrasing) that costs of doing so are in excess of 10x above ground. Required maintenance presents additional hurdles. ITC further suggested that the MPSC is required to evaluate energy costs assigned to rate-payers and would likely object to underground proposals.
Now, in presenting their preferred 19 Mile Rd and alternative, higher-cost routes to the MPSC, cost considerations no longer appear to be a factor. This leaves me wondering if ITC is making a mockery of the MPSC regulatory process?
Conclusion
While Township Board Members, staff and I remain committed to finding a solution to this problem, especially in support of current and future expansion of Henry Ford Hospital Macomb, we cannot sit by and acquiesce to the bullying tactics that have been demonstrated by ITC. I believe that the Township is not only justified in asking for your help, we are, frankly, obligated to do so!
Thursday’s Public Hearing, as well as the online platform, at:
https://www.itcshrine.com/, is your opportunity to join the Township in this fight. By combining our voices, asking questions, raising concerns and speaking up on behalf of fellow residents, together we can protect our homeowners, our property values, our community values, our potential for future growth and economic development, while also sending a clear signal that Clinton Township will not be bullied into submission by big-money interests without a fight. Please join us!
Respectfully,