Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

I start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

May I please ask for a roll call?

Supervisor Riley. Present. Clerk Anzaldi. Present. Treasurer Epikhin.

Present.

Trustee Erta Thompson. Present. Trustee Jaffer.

Present.

Trustee Brabeck. Trustee Karami. Present. Madam Supervisor, you have six members present.

Thank you. We do have quorum. I will ask for a motion for an approval of our agenda.

Madam Chair, I move to approve the agenda for September 9, 2026. Second.

Okay.

Any discussion?

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. The agenda is approved for this evening. I'm going to go ahead and open it up for public comment. Any person may come forward at this time to address the board. Anyone who wishes to speak is requested but not required to state his or her name and address for the record. You'll have five minutes to speak, and then the board may choose to respond afterwards. If you do, I'm asking that if you do have something for the public hearing in regards to the data center, that you wait for the public hearing that will be next after this. Good evening.

How do I do this? I'll just stand here and talk. OK. Good evening. And my name is Norma Smith-Cost. I'm a dinosaur, but I'm not dead, OK? And one of the things I want to please ask you to remember is that there's a lot of senior citizens that live in the Harwood subdivision that do not have computers and do not have smartphones. Now, that ain't me. I got a computer. but they did not know about this meeting because they're uninformed. So I would like to please ask you, when you put out this wonderful thing, include something that's real important, like this meeting. Please, because we can read, but we, and I can't tell you how sad it is that some of the people in my subdivision don't know what's going on because they don't live in the digital world. And I kind of don't either. But could you please consider the people that are like me, that still read newspapers? And unfortunately, the Ann Arbor News has just said, oh, we are not putting any printed versions out anymore starting in December. So I said, OK, fine. I'm not buying your paper no more. Because I'm not going to sit in front of a laptop and read the thing. So the Ann Arbor News has pushed senior citizens to the curb. Please don't. Please don't push the seniors to the curb. We like newspapers and we'd like to get this wonderful Pittsfield notification of what's going on in this wonderful township. Please help us inform the seniors who are a little more dense than me, okay? And let us all participate because we all pay taxes and we care about each other. Ann Arbor News doesn't care about us, but you must. Because I do. And I was 43 years full-time employed at the University, not the University of Michigan, but as I did work there 15 years, midnights, oh my God. But anyway, I'm a medical technologist. I care about everybody. I want everybody to have the best health possible. But they gotta be informed. You can't be informed if you're not in the digital world all the time. So please, please consider helping the seniors. who don't have access to digital because it's their choice. Please help the senior citizens being involved in this community. Thank you for your kindness, and thank you for everything you do. And I always vote. Have never missed an election in my whole life. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Alethea Battles, and I am running for Washtenaw County Probate Judge. And I just wanted to approach the council to introduce myself and to introduce myself to the citizens of Pittsville Township, if that's okay. So my name is Alethea Battles. I am currently associate general counsel and a clinical social worker at the University of Michigan. And I have been in this role for, I've worked at the University of Michigan for over 35 years, mostly as a clinical social worker, then as an attorney. And I am now seeking the office of probate judge. I've been doing probate work and assisting with probate matters on behalf of Michigan Medicine for some of our most vulnerable citizens now for over 10 years. And I would love to continue to do that work. The probate court is going to handle guardianships, conservatorships, decedent estates, living wills and trusts, and some mental health cases. Usually these cases involve the most vulnerable in our community, those who suffer from some kind of either neurocognitive disorder or some kind of like maybe a head injury or who have developmental disabilities that require the assistance of a guardian. There are, what I'd like for people to know is that there are a couple of new laws that have just been passed that were passed in July that are going to really impact this seat and the people of Washtenaw County should know about those. They will involve whether or not a guardian can sell a person's property and whether or not a guardian can remove a person from their residence and relocate them. Those are things that are now going to have to go before the probate judge. So that's going to create more work and it requires more knowledge and experience to be able to do that. And that is what I have. I have 10 years of probate law experience. And I have been recognized as a national expert by institutions and agencies like the Department of Justice, a lot of national academic centers like Duke, and the New England Journal of Medicine. When they need to have a manuscript review that has to do with probate law, they call me. and asked me to do that. And so I think that that's the kind of person that we would want representing our citizens and residents in Washtenaw County. And so I would love to have the support of the people of Pittsfield Township as well as Washtenaw County. And thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Christina Laronis, 151 East Textile Road, and I'm glad to see our probate court candidate here. There's more than one, but it's such a crucial role. My daughter is intellectually disabled, and the elderly often come in contact with the probate court, so it is a crucial position. I just wanted to say that I'm glad that we're doing a data center ordinance. I think this is what first reading tonight, and I know that there's a public hearing later, but good that we're doing that, and I think that it went through a lot of vetting through the different attorneys that worked on this, and I'm glad we engaged outside counsel on top of our typical counsel for this, so that was important. I want to say that I'm 100% opposed to the TIF, the Tax Increment Finance, the corridor, it's also known as the Corridor Improvement Authority. I think it's a huge mistake. I think it should not be done, It's scraping money off of our general fund, our parks, our public safety millages, and putting it into a sequestered account to be used at a much later date so that we don't have access to those funds should we need them. I think it's just an enormous error to do this. It was attempted in the previous administration And then as it collected very little money, it was just refunded to the various taxing authorities that participated, except for Pittsfield, which picked up the tab for all the legal, the publications, all of the costs that went into it, the different plans, the consultants were all paid on this. So it's just a bad way to go to take our own money and to peel it off of special voted millages that otherwise could never be touched for anything other than what the voters expected them to be used for. Those are special millages that cannot be used for any other purpose. And with a TIF or a corridor improvement authority, we're able to touch those and draw them down for a different purpose. There's no question that State Road needs work. I don't think anybody doubts that. So do Platte, Washtenaw, Michigan Avenue. I don't think there's a road in this township that doesn't need additional work. But I think that there's a different way to approach financing. When the Walmart was built, we negotiated $5 million worth of improvements that they paid for out of pocket. When developers want to come here, they need to pay. This is an extremely desirable community for developers to locate in. We should not be footing the bill for improvements that they are requiring. And in fact, many of the developers on State Road have paid to both put in center turn lane, additional lanes. Each time a development goes in, they have been improving State Road. It's true that there's backups at the freeway entrances at 94. But that's Ann Arbor. There's, I think, some confusion about where Ann Arbor's jurisdiction ends and Pittsfield's begins. Pittsfield should not be doing this. This is a mistake. I'm sorry that it's being proposed and I'm sorry that it's probably going to happen tonight. I think it's a mistake and I'll continue to let the public know about it. I think the tax rate that you're proposing is far too high. The total millage rate is 8.53 when I served in office from 2000 to 2008. It was always below six mils. We had lowered it to 5.95 mils early on and continued that all the way through our administration, 5.95 mils. And this is the total tax rate, including the two special voted millages. And we lowered it again to 5.45 mils. I could see that there might have been a need for some incremental increase, but this Over the years, almost each and every year, we're getting hit with higher and higher and higher millage rates in this township to the point where it's up to 8.53 this time around. 8.53 mills. People that own a house with a higher taxable value are really going to get hurt by this. There is a point where you're hurting people by the amount that you're taxing them. You are hurting them. You need to cut back. You need to figure out a way. to cut back and live within a more reasonable budget. I understand that a lot of it's got to do with the special voted public safety millage. We needed a new building. Then we better be looking at an end date for when that's gonna drop back down again, once that building's paid off. And then for the lady that spoke earlier, perhaps we could publish in the Sun Times. That's the one paper that's still around here that a lot of the municipalities publish their legal notices. in the Sun Times and I know that they distribute in Saline perhaps they could be encouraged to distribute in Pittsfield Township as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak during the public comment?

Is there any response that you would like to make?

But definitely noted about making sure that we reach our seniors and mailing things out.

Well, I would just like to make, you know, as the lady was speaking about how some people are not technologically advanced and some people do not have access to what's going on. I don't know that if anybody's ever suggested like maybe we maintain a list if you are, if you are, don't have technology and you want a physical paper copy i don't know it's just something to think about for future like if you want to be on this list where you get paper but it i would have to say on behalf of the board it is kind of hard to know what to publish or what to let the public know and what interest they're going to have we do a lot of things at this township I feel like, of course, every single thing that we do is very, very important. And if I could, I would send everybody a daily reminder of all the good work that we're doing. The data center is, you know, there has been a lot of issues concerning the data center. And so I know it is important to a lot of people. You know, and sometimes people do have to depend on their good neighbors, of course, to keep them well informed. So just a few thoughts there. Okay.

Yeah, and we do have a senior center that actually does do a lot of mailings and things, so that's an option, too, is to become part of the senior center, and going there, they help you sign up for things and help you do things, so that's also an option. I just want to make clear, too, that there's no data center. It's an ordinance, and I know that you didn't mean that, but I just want to make sure that doesn't do that. That approach by a data center, there's no data center that came to us. This is all preventative, so I want to make sure I'm clear on that part.

Okay.

And then we will go over the budget in detail as we go to the working session later So I will address a lot of the issues that was spoken about as well All right. Um, I would like to actually make a friendly amendment to the Motion to approve the agenda to approve the minutes and I'm sure I moved to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held on August 12 2026 second, okay, and now maybe a friendly amendment and If we could strike out in Section 9.4 of the minutes where it says reimburse some of the purchases and replace it with see if we can reimburse ourselves or use money elsewhere.

I accept the friendly amendment, and does he mean second the friendly amendment? Second. Okay. Any other changes or additions, questions?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. The minutes are approved as amended. All right moving on we will go ahead and on to the Public hearing we'll start with the public hearing for the OA number 26 236 data center ordinance. I'm gonna go ahead and call it to order at 645 and first I'm going to ask our tower shop planner Ben Carlisle to come up and just give a little information overview about the ordinance and why we're doing it for both the first public hearing and second public hearing and want to make sure everybody knows this is a first public hearing there will also be a second public hearing so your your concerns and your Suggestions of the evening are not too late. We have time to incorporate and then bring them back as well. So I will pass it over to our planner, Ben Carlisle.

Thank you. Good evening to the Township Board. Good evening to the residents. I normally don't do this when I come and present to you. I'm a little more off the cuff. But I'm going to actually kind of read from a prepared statement that we had put together as part of the Planning Commission discussion. So I apologize to Commissioner Jaffa. This is probably the third or fourth time you've heard this. But I think it's important just to give a background to where we've been and to where we are tonight. But I'm here to address the ordinance regulations regarding high resource demand facilities, which also includes the issues of data centers and data processing centers. I just want to remind the Township Board, as well as the public that's listening, that we have not received an application for a data center, nor have we received a phone call or an inquiry for a data center. As my role as a township planner, I'm usually the first in line for when requests like that come in. And I can relay to you that we have not received one inquiry with regards to having a data center. But what we're doing is trying to get ahead of the issue. Obviously, this is a hot button issue. We've seen it affect in many of our other adjacent communities. But we're trying to get ahead of the issue in case one does get applied here in Pittsfield that we are well protected. As Miss Laronis did note, this was a very much of a group effort. There were a number of staff with various expertise that were participated in the drafting this ordinance. It was not a one-person show. In addition, this did get reviewed by three different municipal attorneys with their input as well, and they think this is as legally defensible an ordinance that we can put together to best protect the township. Obviously, data centers are an emerging land use. They have very significant impacts to communities. They involve large buildings, continuous operation, major electrical demands, including water and cooling needs, backup generator, noise, security infrastructure, and long-term questions about site restoration. One of the requests that we've received, not only in Pittsville, but a lot of the other communities we work in is, why can't we just simply ban them outright, just simply not allow them? While that's an understandable reaction to the current climate of what the data centers are being received, Zoning authority has legal limits. We simply just cannot ban a use that is a permitted legal use. And we can't write regulations that are so strict to basically ban them outright. So we have to craft an ordinance that is legally defensible but yet best protects the township from any sort of issue that may come about. We did that. We think we did that. We think we wrote an ordinance that is as legally defensible, but also as strict as possible to regulate the various issues that may arise. I do also want to note that this is an emerging topic. It's one that's changing literally daily right now with how it's going. The other thing I want to note, and the township attorney would, I think, back me up if she was here, is that there's no case laws yet set for this use either. So it may change how we regulate. once case law is established. So this is a great first draft that's coming out, a great first ordinance that the township should adopt, but that doesn't mean that we can't continue to look at this issue and revise it and amend it as other issues and topics emerge, because it will emerge just based on how things are going right now. We have approached the ordinance that simply the data centers are not allowed, but we're going to regulate the appropriate location, the type of data center that we would allow, the review process under which it would go under, and standards that would protect the public health, safety, and welfare for the community. I understand there are some additional provisions that the board may want to consider the public may want to consider We were certainly open to that But we do feel right now as written it really is as tight as it can be right now from a legal defensibility standpoint But again, we're open to additional comments that may come through With the draft ordinance does have a purpose statement. It's to establish regulatory framework for the siting and design, operation, decommissioning of data centers while also potentially balancing economic benefits with the protection of public health, safety, and welfare. The ordinance does specifically identify concerns and try to mitigate those concerns of infrastructure capacity nuisance impacts, electricity and water use, architecture and screening, compatibility with the master plan, and who is responsible for decommissioning should a data center come offline in the future. The ordinance begins by defining the use, including what a high resource demand facility is, what a data center is, what a data processing center. It also includes battery energy storage systems, which are often a component of a data center, and so it protects us from those types of uses either. It ensures that the most intense facilities are only located in the industrial districts as a special use that would allow the Planning Commission to have a review of that. In addition, because these are unique uses, there is a provision that actually requires it to get approval also by the Township Board. So that is a little bit unique provision for this use that we don't have for any other uses in the ordinance, so ultimately this board would be the ultimate decision maker if one was proposed in the township. It does include a heightened review process, I noted. It also requires a community engagement plan, which does require neighborhood meetings, as well as documentation of what the public input received as part of that, and that would be submitted as part of the application, and that would be reviewed by the appropriate bodies, yourself and the Planning Commission. The draft does include strong dimensional and siting standards including minimum lot size height controls lot coverage limits increased setbacks green belts and separation from residential and other sensitive uses Includes strong design standards. So they're not just massive buildings There is some design requirements and it talks about the screening of equipment the reduction of lighting impact increased landscaping and green and creative storm water techniques as well as construction traffic and how the operation would actually be built. The operational impacts of a data center are extremely important to regulate as much as we can do possibly. There is federal and state law, which we can't necessarily supersede, but we can bring up our limit as close to that as possible at the local level. So we have performance standards in there for noise, vibration, generator testing, air quality, cooling towers, thermal emissions, energy efficiency, renewable energy, water use, and wastewater as well. Again, I'm not an expert in any of those particular fields, but we had expertise in those fields that brought those recommendations to the ordinance and brought that all together. So it was really a team effort. In addition, we addressed the issue of public safety working with the township public safety department. So we have issues with regards to security, emergency access, fire protection. Fire protection is obviously a big issue with these moving forward. Hazardous material planning, emergency response coordination, as well as specifically if batteries are included because that just raises the level of the requirement for fire protection. In addition, the ordinance does also allow the township, if one is submitted, to use outside consultants to review the project. There are expertise that will be required to review the compatibility of the project, all the environmental issues we talked about, operational issues. So the ordinance has a provision that allows the township to hire outside experts and that outside experts would be paid for by the applicant themselves. So it would be cost neutral to the township with regards to consultant's use. But overall, the ordinance was really intended to provide a clear and defensible framework. It does not exclude data centers because we legally cannot do that. But it does ensure that if they are proposed, they're reviewed carefully and held to the highest standard that the township can to review those. and protect, again, the infrastructure, nearby properties, residential natural resources, and again, the public health, safety, and welfare. So in summary, the ordinance does three things. First, it does recognize that the township simply cannot outright ban a data center use. However, it does direct the facilities, if proposed, to what we find the most appropriate zoning districts and subjects them to a heightened review standard. And third, it creates a very high level of detailed standards with regard to the siting, design, infrastructure, environmental, public engagement, safety, and decommissioning and risk management. Risk mitigation I'm sorry so again the goal is that if an application is submitted the township has a clear Defensible and enforceable standards to enforce and evaluate the proposed project with that being said I'm happy to answer any questions Either now or after you hear from the public hearing and I'll be here for the rest of the meeting to answer anything that may come up Thank you Come and speak on public hearing If you do

Is there any comment from our board at all? Yes, you want to come up? I'm sorry, you have five minutes. You're welcome to speak on the subject of the data center ordinance, yes.

This is the first I've heard about, the data center ordinance that you just described. It was pretty difficult to keep up with everything that you were sharing. Plus, your back was to us, so it was hard to hear. Being one of the seniors and all, you know. Is there a written, like, if this, like, how long have we been working on getting this proposal together, for example? And then is there something in writing that people could write?

Yeah, the draft ordinance is in the packet. So we can certainly get you the packet.

The packet is that when we first walked in?

It's in the actual entire packet. Bryce can help you out. He's coming up here. And then we also have been working on this for, gosh, we had put the moratorium in place back in November of 25. So we've been working on it for quite a time. And it has gone through the planning commission first and then vetted out there with public comment and now has come here. Okay.

So, and now you're presenting it, so you hear about it, and then you guys discuss it, and then you decide if you want to propose alterations to the proposal if somebody came up to us and said we want to build a data center here. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, I'm sorry. So how we, and I know you know this when we do public comments. You say everything I just say, and then we do it afterwards. Okay. So it's not a conversation back and forth.

Those are my initial questions, and nice to see you all again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is this for me? Thank you.

Anybody else want to come up and speak on the public hearing? Please come up.

My name is Raymond Vassar. I'm at 862 Kelpie Drive. And a couple of comments. I think some of my questions were already answered in terms of no one has kind of approached the township or a data center. And I would like to thank the Planning Commission. It sounds like they've dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's. I thank them for that. It's so detailed. And it's very prospective. And people are working very, very hard to imagine what the problems could be. And I do see it, I agree, it appears to be more of a restrictive document, which I was happy to see. In a recent article in the Scientific American, they commented on New York's moratorium for one year. And what they were saying in that article was, the reason for that was that there wasn't any data, actual data. And the data centers are not producing data no pun intended, they're not producing any information about how they're using it, how much energy they're using, what's happening to the water, how much water they're using. And they seem to be really closed down about sharing any of that information. And based on that, the state of New York said, no, we have to wait and find out. So I guess my proposal would be, and again, thanks to the Planning Commission, of course, I've read every single word in the document. I like that it has a very restrictive sound, but again, we don't know it's up against what and what happens and what really goes on. And so what I would suggest is that the moratorium be extended until we do start getting some information about how the data centers are impacting the community, impacting the environment, the ecology. We don't know. I couldn't find anything. I'm not any expert. I'm casual. you know, web browser guy, but I couldn't find any information. And it's astounding how they are kind of locking down the information. You can't get any information. So nobody's gonna come to you and say, well, here on these 10 data centers, this is, how they used water, this is what they did, this is how it turned out. These are the true impacts on the community. And all I know from my personal experience is that Michigan Avenue is not usable now for me. I would take trips out to Hidden Lake Gardens And I don't want to drive down there to get caught behind one of these gravel haulers or going 60 miles an hour in downtown Saline. And that impact is just incredible. So again, in conclusion, I would recommend extending the moratorium until we are able to get more information that's very clear. And again, my great thanks to the Planning Commission. And it sounds like they thought of every contingency but they don't know any reality. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak on the public hearing? I would like to, if I can, respond to the information about the moratorium. So we, at a suggestion of one of our residents, actually put the moratorium in place for a six-month period. And I think that was brilliant. The beauty of having our residents being so engaged because I didn't think of that. It was brought to us and we went ahead and put it in there. We extended it for another six months so it would be a full year. The problem is that some states can do it longer because the actual state has a law that kind of follows that up. Unfortunately, it would not be legally defensible because they do, there's actually a term, demonstrated need is what the state of Michigan has said. And because the state has said it's a demonstrated need, and we had basically talking to all three of the attorneys that we have talked to and outside attorneys more than that, if we did it for more than a year, it would not be legally defensible. But to your point, yeah, that would have been the easy way to do it. But, yeah. And I think Mr. Carlisle has more comments and more knowledge than I do on that.

No, your point's 100% correct. We did talk about that, whether we can extend it or not, and we realized that we really couldn't do it. The state of New York, it's a state action, so it supersedes local authority. The state of Michigan, as far as we know, is not in the position right now where they're going to adopt a moratorium. So really, it's on the local level. In about a year is as long as you could ever push a moratorium. That being said, though, Yucca, Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority, has adopted a moratorium that runs at least through April of 2027. For the water supply, yeah. For the water supply. And so if there is a data center proposed in Pittsfield that's in the Yucca district, it would be upheld to that moratorium until at least April of 2027. So that's just an additional consideration that's also going on at the same time that I want the board to be aware of as well. Yeah. Thanks.

And I do appreciate the other jurisdictions around us that had to deal with this on the fly. I feel for them. We had the heads up of what's going on around us. We're able to put in the moratorium to give us time to pause and really think about it. So I feel fortunate about that. And again, I'm saying it here in public. We were not approached, nor have we reached out in interest. If anybody would like to make any other comments during the public hearing.

I would just like to say that I do agree with Mr. Vassar, I believe it is. We don't have a lot of information or data regarding data centers. And technology, it moves really fast. And who knows what it's going to be like in 10 years. There may be no data centers. Data centers could be out in space for all we know. So I do appreciate that. It would be nice to have some data to Backup like yeah, it's not it's not gonna take that much water. Yeah, it doesn't need that much electricity But we don't know and I and I don't think there is a way right now because it's in its infancy stage to know how this how this is all gonna play out but Luckily the supervisor in the Planning Commission and the planner they have all been working really hard I think to make it so that you know It is a little more restrictive, which I like, up until we have some data that we could say, oh, yeah, you know what? We thought it was going to be a big deal to have a high-capacity data center, and really it turned out to be nothing. But we have these restrictions in place, and I do think we needed to do something about it now, because if we don't, there's a chance somebody could come in and say, Yeah, you know what? I'm going to put a data center here, and I'm going to take it to court. I'm going to sue the township. It's going to cost everybody a lot of money. So I appreciate the steps that the supervisor has laid out, and I agree with this ordinance, actually.

And to your point, a living and breathing document for sure. As we learn more, we'll be watching it. And as things evolve and state leadership changes, and we'll see what happens.

So I have a couple of comments here as well. You know, looking at widening the aperture and looking back on this a bit, there's a reason that we had to consider this ordinance. It's because our state legislature passed a tax abatement, a sizable tax abatement that got rid of all the sales and use tax. So the Saline Data Center that we're talking about is over $40 billion of an investment made. And how big is that tax investment? Well, do 6% on that $40 billion worth of hardware in there It's a $2.4 billion abatement initially. And then those types of data centers have to renew their hardware typically every three to four years. So you look at $2.4 billion every three to four years for the total duration of the abatement, which is 30 years currently. So these are sizable, sizable abatements. This is why Michigan has been targeted for so many data centers. congressional district six which we are which is congressional congresswoman dingell's district there are four active shovel like shovels are in the ground and data centers in this community alone there's 16 active in the state of michigan so i will also want to echo the gratefulness i have to our planning commission you know carlisle and group All we can do is be as restrictive as we can. We have done the moratorium for this time. But when we ask what else can we do as a body, what else can you all do, we can talk to our people at the state if there are other controls we want to have there. There are things that are being proposed right now. There's a Senate bill that was just proposed, gosh, two months ago now. That's a community benefits bill. And what that means is anytime there's a data center that come to like a planning commission or things of that nature for a local municipality, they would have to agree with the municipality for community benefits before they can be approved. So that means we would actually have a seat at the table for negotiation for things before they're entering in our community. So I just want to add that I'm supportive of the ordinance as it's written. I think there's a ton of work. We've been working on this for a year. But there's still more work to be done. not just in this ordinance. That controls what this looks like now, but there are greater controls that we can advocate at the state layer. So I'm happy to talk with anybody here about how, like who your representation is, how we can do that. And then we can also talk as a board about how we can lend our voice to that conversation. So I just want to greater contextualize. This is why this is, this ordinance is needed. There's a lot of big money that's coming into our community because they don't have to pay taxes on the equipment for now and for 30 years. And that's not small change when you're talking about projects of this scale. So that's why we, you know, are being targeted and that's why we're doing everything we reasonably can to put in the controls in place. Thank you, Supervisor. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and give it a last call. And if not, then I'll go ahead and close this public hearing at, I don't know what time it is, 7.07. And go ahead and open up the next public hearing, 5.2, ZOA 26237, Moratorium Language. And again, we'll do the same thing at opening it at 707. And then inviting our planner, Ben Carlisle, to come up and talk a little about what this Public hearing is encompassing.

Yeah. Thank you. I'll be I'll be much more brief on this topic. Hopefully than the previous one When we were looking at the data center ordinance when we brought in outside counsel They reviewed it and they started asking us about the moratorium that the township adopted we had to look at some of our moratorium provisions and There's nothing in the zoning ordinance that talks about the procedures and the standards under which the township would adopt a land use, essentially a land use moratorium. The township has been adopting moratoriums for years. We've never been challenged on it, but that doesn't mean we couldn't be challenged. There have been some communities lately that have been challenged on the issuance of moratorium because it wasn't outlined in an ordinance that allowed them to actually take that action. So this is what this language does, it simply just grants the authority we already have, but grants it in the zoning ordinance to establish land use moratoriums and gives the procedures for how to do it and gives the kind of standards under which you review a moratorium. So it just cleans up what the township has done in the past, but makes it a little more legal and defensible by actually putting it in the zoning ordinance itself. It's not a procedural change to anything we've done in the past. It just codifies what we've been doing. So thank you.

Thank you. We're kind of buttoning up a little bit is what it comes down to, but I will go ahead and ask if anybody else would like to comment on that particular part of it. Okay. If not, then I will go ahead and close that public hearing at 7.09. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. There are no communications, so I will then go ahead and ask for a motion for our consent agenda.

Madam Chair, I move to consent agenda 7.1 to 7.13. Second.

Okay, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

All right, consent agenda is approved. Moving on to department reports and updates. May I please have a motion to receive and file 8.1?

Madam Chair, I move to receive and file the MERS Annual Actuarial Valuation Report as of December 31st, 2025. Second.

Okay, are there any questions on this one? Okay, that's pretty straightforward. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Received and filed. May I please have a motion for 9.1?

Madam Chair, I move to receive the draft fiscal year 2027 Pittsfield Charter Township budget.

Second.

Okay, any discussion on this one? We will be discussing this in much further detail. I don't know if we'll invite our director of finance up or we wanted to talk about this in general during the working session, get more deep into it. Yeah, and that makes more sense to me, but we'll dive deep. All right, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, received. May I please have a motion for 9.2?

Madam Treasurer, I move to adopt a resolution to amend the fiscal year 2026 general fund Public Safety Fund, Building Fund, and Federal Forfeiture Fund Budgets Resolution No. 26 to 24.

Support. Okay. And discussion on this one. Again, we do have our Director of Finance if there's questions regarding this. I know it was a pretty detailed memo, but if you'd like an explanation, we do have someone here to do that. Okay. We have a roll call for this one.

Supervisor Riley. Yes. Clerk Anzaldi. Yes. Treasurer Epikin.

Yes.

Trustee Erta Thompson. Yes. Trustee Jaffer.

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck.

Yes.

Trustee Karami. Yes. Madam Supervisor, you have seven yeas.

All right. Thank you. Adopted. May I please have a motion for 9.3?

Madam Treasurer, I move to authorize the supervisor to respond to FOIA appeal within 10 days of its official receipt in accordance with the recommendation of the township attorney.

Support. Okay, any discussion? This is something that when we have an appeal to FOIA, it is the law, so if you have to come to the board, the approval, and then, yeah, we'll work with the attorney on that. All right, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, authorization is granted. May I please have a motion for 9.4?

Madam Chair, I move to receive and file the quarterly cash balance report, second quarter 2026. Support. Okay, is this over to our treasurer? Yes.

Well, I'll be brief. Rather than walk through the whole report, I'll just highlight a few accomplishments from the second quarter. During April, we completed the settlement and distribution of the 2025 winner tax revenues to all taxing units, closing out the winner tax cycle in full. We supported the township's equalization process and monitored certification of the 2026 state equalization order, ensuring all our taxable values were properly established for the year. Also, we administered the June 1st principal residence exemption deadline and prepared the summer tax roll, which we are in process of collecting now. And busy. It's a busy month, which is ready for a billing cycle. All in all, the township has maintained a strong financial position. with about $55.2 million in cash and investments, and our portfolio recorded approximately $210,000 in investment earnings during that quarter. So while we are continuing to prioritize our safety, liquidity, and compliance with Public Act 20, as we move into the third quarter, our focus shifts to the summer tax billing cycle and collection cycle and continued investment and management preparing for fall. Thank you.

All right. Any questions or discussion? All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Received and filed. May I please ask for a motion for 9.5?

The Reliant Fire Properties Proposal Number 1402 for the purchase of one Pierce Sabre Custom Chassis Pumper Frontline Fire Engine for the Fire Department in the amount not to exceed $1,031,607, subject to Township Attorney approval. Second.

Okay, this one actually I'm going to ask our Fire Chief and our Director of Public Safety, whoever wants to come up and speak to it, and give a little background on this because this is something that's kind of I think there's a little more explanation for it.

Thankfully unique. Yeah, it's a little more unique, right? So this is for the purchase of a fire engine. And so there are a lot of different fire apparatus, but the backbone of a fire response, the front line vehicle that responds for a fire emergency, is the engine from all three stations. So NFPA standards call for a 15 year limit in the amount of time that a truck should be a frontline truck, then that truck can be moved to the back. It'd be just a backup in case one of the frontline trucks needs service. This truck's been with us since 2010. It's got over 135,000 miles on it. It's got a lot of hours on it. It's been a good vehicle, but at some point, the repairs and the cost of maintaining it and keeping it going start to become prohibitive, and it is now at an age where we really shouldn't have it on a frontline capacity anymore. So there's a process to purchase these vehicles, and we've been exploring that through Pierce and their... and their financial through PNC, but working with the finance director and the next couple items you'll see, we see an advantage in doing an RFP. So this is for approval to sign the agreement to make the purchase, but there will be some additional steps. Any questions on that?

I believe that we know, I don't know if the board knows, we did not move forward with the aerial truck. This is correct. So this is something in lieu of right now, at least, why, and It's more of a long-range planning because we know that these vehicles aren't something you just buy on a whim. So we need to really make sure that we are thinking long-range, and this is part of that.

We shouldn't wait until the last second and say, oh, we need to buy that new million-dollar truck. We do need to make a plan for this and really work it through. But this vehicle is at the point where it's time, and we are working to make sure that we have a forecasted plan to replace vehicles at the appropriate time.

Asset management there. Okay. Any questions or comments? All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That's approved. May I please have a motion for 9.6?

Madam Supervisor, I move to adopt a resolution authorizing an installment purchase agreement for a frontline fire engine, resolution number 26 to 25.

Second.

Basically, yep. In tandem with the other. Correct. Correct.

This is the step to work toward the RFP.

Yep.

Okay, roll call on this one. Clerk Anzaldi. Yes. Treasurer Eppekin. Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson. Yes. Trustee Jaffer.

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck. Yes. Trustee Karami. Yes. Supervisor Riley. Yes. Madam Chair, you have seven yeas.

All right, thank you. That is approved. And may I please have a motion for 9.7.

Madam Supervisor, I move to authorize the Supervisor and Clerk to sign an engagement letter with Betzinski & Co. to provide municipal advisor services at a cost not to exceed $8,875,000 in connection with the fire engine installment purchase agreement process, subject to Township Attorney approval.

Second. Okay, any discussion on this one? This is in conjunction with the actual thing, the process that we're doing to make sure, I'll let you explain it, sorry.

Correct, so again, there are multiple steps to, including the resolution, but there are multiple steps and there are some fees involved. to make sure that we're crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's and that the final agreement does, it falls within the legal standard, but then also is to our advantage. So these steps, while they do cost something, we'll be financially responsible for the township to do this as opposed to kind of easy button with the purchase.

Making sure we're getting the best rates and we're doing all of this. Correct. So yeah, that should be getting the best rate and the timeframe and everything will more than compensate for that.

Definitely. Willing to take extra steps to make sure that happens.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That's authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.8?

Madam Supervisor, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign a subcontract with Phillips Sign and Lighting for mountain signage lighting installation as part of the public safety facility improvement project at a total cost not to exceed $7,999.34, subject to township attorney approval. Second.

Okay, and this is just... A little more basic.

Just signage for the front of the building.

And this is just part of the project next door in the packet. I'm sure you saw the picture. It looks pretty nice. All right, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, that's authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.9?

Madam Supervisor, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign an agreement with Digital Protection Systems for the purchase and installation of a bi-directional antenna and cell booster antenna for the public safety facility improvement project at a cost not to exceed $79,425.50, subject to Township attorney approval. Second.

So we did discuss this a little bit in our last meeting that this was another item that while we could have done this under the blue scope contract, it would have cost more, but all things considered and full disclosure, we should have done this, we should have done this a little bit earlier and we've been operating currently with like a, I don't want to call it makeshift. It's a legit radio system within the building, but cellular service within the building is very poor due to the steel roof. It's really the construction of the building. And once it was fully complete and enclosed, we discovered that we really did need a booster for both cellular and emergency radio comms. So this is the standard way that you do that in a building like this.

Okay. Any discussion or questions for Director Gray? All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Moving on to 9.10. May I please have a motion?

Madam Supervisor, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign an agreement with Lexipol for the implementation and use of Lexipol's annual policy manual and daily training bulletin software for police and fire departments at a cost not to exceed $49,330.78, subject to township attorney approval.

Second. Okay, any discussion or explanation why you're here?

Sure, absolutely. So Lexapol is known nationwide, and I believe it's more than just nationwide, but Lexapol's been around for a very long time. I think they started out as a policy, really just a policy-driven business where they would help agencies put together a proper policy Policy for both police and fire proper policy book and make sure that it's up to date and now they have really excelled in that to a point where they're giving regular updates to your agency if there's a new law passes and things like that they're making suggestions to keep us operating under best practices and this is both for the police department and the fire department and Fire Chief and I have both put in a lot of work recently to try to keep our policies updated, and this is really the next best step to make sure that we are doing things constitutionally sound and legal and doing them timely, not just finding out months later and then having to make changes. There's also a training portion of this for the police department. The fire department is already using Lexapol for staff training and police licensure is, they're calling it still a pilot, but we were really moving toward annual training requirements, which have been needed in multiple different topics. And that is really, it's gone live for the last two years, but it's really going to be, mandated shortly and Lexapol will provide a lot of those CEP training courses through this process. So it's really, it's a benefit for the police department too. Fire department's been very happy with it.

So the annual cost for this, I guess it's an application, right?

It's like a subscription or a membership.

Yeah, a subscription. Correct. So the annual price, though, I mean, this will include some implementation fees, correct? Exactly. So with my understanding, so $10,000 of it or so is getting the system set up. That's correct. But your going forward cost annually is going to be, what, $39,000? It will be less.

Yes, implementation costs for this, for police and fire to basically have all of their policies brought up to date and in the system, and then the police department to get the training portion of this package is $10,652. That is a one-time fee. So moving forward, you're correct. This would be roughly $10,000 less. And this isn't, of course, it's a... It's something that's used widely, but this isn't like an introductory fee. This isn't, you know, we got you in there and now we're going to raise the rate. I'm sure that there are increases annually like anything else, but they do this on a per officer or per firefighter scale. So until they change that scale for everybody across the board, that would be our fee.

Okay, thank you. Okay, any other questions or discussion on this one? All right.

All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? All right. Thank you. I think we're done for now and then we'll see you for the budget. Correct. All right. Thank you. May I please have a motion for 9.11?

Madam Supervisor, I move to adopt a resolution to establish the authority on designating the boundaries for the State Street Corridor Improvement Authority resolution number 2608. Second. Okay.

We do have Administrator Lyon here to answer any questions. Again, this is just moving along the boundaries that I don't think have changed from the last time, so there's no additional costs in doing that except for the signs and that sort of thing, no lawyer costs and things. But also this is not necessarily saying that we are doing this, that we still have to go to the county. There's still many other steps, but this is putting the boundaries in place, one of the steps that has to happen within the process.

I do have a question about the packet stuff. Administrator. Administrator line. The chart that you had in the packet, I just want to make sure that I understood it because the labeling on the headers was PCT capture 25% and then CIA capture 75%. So it wasn't clear, like, are those labels correct? Is the 25% what we are keeping and not the capture for the CIA? It's just the collection of taxes?

Correct. So the, well, first of all, good evening, board. The difference in the incremental... to year that would be shared between the CIA and the taxing jurisdiction is the CIA would keep 75% and the taxing jurisdiction would save or keep 25%.

So it's going to depend on the growth amount. So if it's $100, say, if we collect $100 just for the township, for example, and this is just a... The township is going to keep $25, and that only represents the growth section. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And then $75 will go into the TIF or the CIA. Correct.

Okay. That's from ours and the county, if they choose to do it.

Yep. So then this is going to be dependent on whether the county and the county parks have come into our district or our CIA?

If they choose to join the CIA.

Yes.

Better? Sorry.

And I think that if they do, that makes this worthwhile. And if they don't, then I think that's another conversation.

Yeah. So let me ask you this. So this resolution just establishes the boundary that they're going to look at. And then at the next... the next item is going to be establishing the board.

Correct. This establishes the authority in the boundaries within that authority.

Okay.

And that's it.

Okay. And, um, okay. So I don't have any more questions, but I would like to say that, you know, just as my personal comment is I, I'm going to vote no tonight, probably because, I feel like, for me, it feels like it has a lot of holes in it. I'm not sure, based on the calculations, how much each part of the project is gonna cost, where that money's gonna come from, and our projections are based on this 2.5 incremental increase in our property values, but with the economy the way it is, And the market, we could have a downturn. So we don't know what those little pieces are going to look like, and we don't have any projections on those pieces either, which is somewhat, you know, I find questionable, and I feel like I'm approving something that I really don't have enough information on. I also feel like Another big problem that I have with this whole thing is we have this expectation that there's going to be an 80% grant fund that's going to support this whole $58 or $60 million project. And it will pay for a lot of this project, but it's hard to say that's not guaranteed. We already lost out on a grant because it was approved, but we didn't get it for our public safety department. So I find that problematic. And defining this project based on our grant and the grant that we could potentially receive, I feel like there's not enough numbers. I understand we can establish this authority, that we can establish the CIA. This part is only talking about, hey, we're just establishing, we're just setting the boundaries and we're going to come up with this plan. But I think before we even do that, I think we have to have a better understanding of the actual plan. Like, how much is the cross-section going to cost? Where do we think that the funds are going to come from? What have we projected some stress on those figures that we're using to support this project? Because without those things, if this were a smaller project, I don't think that it would be such a problem for me. But we are talking about a lot of money, not only a lot of money to put into it, but a lot of money that we need to get from other people. and a lot of resources to maintain and establish the authority meetings, consultants, attorneys, and all this other stuff that is going to go along with establishing this corridor and improving it. I'm not saying that State Street doesn't need to be improved. But I think what I'm saying is that we're building this project around this grant funding where we could probably do it cheaper or smarter or, you know, do we need sidewalks? Do we need, you know, these certain things that the grant is requiring us to have in order to get the funds? For all those things, I think are problematic. I do think we should explore a little bit more of the SADs. For all those reasons, I'm probably gonna vote, I will vote no for this. And also I think one other thing that I was thinking about today, you know, State Street needs improvements, but there are a lot of other places in the township that are going to need improvements. And here we're carving out these funds that will only be able to go down this corridor And we're earmarking it for 20 years. I mean, at this point, I don't even know when the project will start. Is it going to start in the 20th year? Is it going to start in the 15th year? Is it going to start in the 10th year or the third year? How are we going to fund it up front? For me, there's a lot of questions. So I don't genuinely agree with this, because I feel like we we should have had more options, so. Okay, thank you.

I have to address some of those things. Okay, so this is a big project, and that's part of the thing. And I think when you do any sort of budget or planning, you are, even our own budget leader will be assuming some, the 2.5 will be assuming things. There's things that have to be assumed along the way. When it comes to a giant quarter like that, And again, this is something that if we didn't get a grant, we could decide then what we wanna do with it. But if we do get a giant, giant 40 something million dollar grant to redo the road, we will miss out on it without having the funds to go with it. And that's something that we can decide clearly. It's also when you think about a special assessment district and that is pulling the funds from that actual corridor. So it's those businesses within that corridor in that increment. So it's not like we're pulling from all over the place in that respect. We also have the, this is a regional corridor. So when you do a TIF, you are pulling from the county and other areas that actually have some say in this. A special assessment district, I don't know how much those businesses along that corridor are benefiting from the extra traffic there. Maybe if you think a Carpenter Road corridor or something, they are actually benefiting from that road being improved and having more foot traffic in their location. The businesses, for the most part, down State Road, their employees use that road to cope to and fro. They're not going to get more benefit from that. So I would disagree on the special assessment district part of it. And I've said before if the county did not want to be part of this and we're not getting that extra money Which is a pretty large amount. I would say that no I don't think we should do this either then we just you know, look at it and pull as we would Obviously, this is just us Saving money for this this project in this important corridor Yes, you could say that Platte Road and other roads need it But we don't have the kind of industrial the amount of money that we bring in and that corridor and businesses to offset taxes for the rest of our residents is huge and If we cannot if we lose people on that corridor, and we don't keep up on it We don't have the it takes a lot to attract it You know I'm you work with spark and they and they talk about how important it is to have a whole package when you're attracting it we know we lose a lot of businesses to other areas and and the amount of offsetting that that does. And when we do work with businesses that come in the area, we are, and I know our director of community development can say, we're constantly trying to figure out, OK, if you're coming in here, are you going to improve this room? We're not going to not do that. That will continue. And yes, there's obviously going to be some costs involved in having these meetings and making sure that we're doing everything legally. This was started a while ago, so we do have the base work already there. And as we change and modify it, yes, there will be some costs along the way. However, the costs that we will incur will make up for that. And this is an important corridor. And the assumptions that have to be made along the way, we could give you numbers of what the actual road could cost today. But this is going to be timing and when things are done. And then obviously with materials and things, it's not going to be the same. All we can do is go based on what we have to know The percentage to give an idea of what's going to be needed. So those are my thoughts on it. I don't know if anybody else wants to kind of chime in or their thoughts.

I would like to add a couple things here. So I think the point that can't be overlooked here is this is a cut through. It's not just improving the life of the businesses and the people that use that just in our community. This is a major cut through. and there are things that are external to our control that make this situation worse. And now while it may be a regional benefit to have, and actually I shouldn't say benefit, it's outside of our control and regardless of how we feel about it, there are major projects that were made just north on State Street The Arbor South project is going to come now. It is going to have over 1,000 new housing units that are going to be there. Those residents are in our taxable jurisdiction. They are going to be using this as a cut through to get to US 23, to Michigan Avenue, things of that nature. Our vehicle to have access to county and statewide funds is this. And just to be clear, and I want to ask this as a question, what we're voting on tonight is not the approval of the project. It's not the definition of the funds within it. It's actually looking at this is establishing the boundary. So if we do do SCIA or a tough capture, this is the taxable jurisdiction. So then we can do projections based on this definition for the boundaries. And then the second thing that we're considering tonight is just the board of that. We still have a lot of work to do. And candidly, before I would be an affirmative vote in this, I need to see the data too. I need to see the finances at a deeper detail. But this is a necessary step to say, OK, with this taxable jurisdiction of these boundaries, this is the projection revenue that they offset, et cetera. And this is, in my opinion, this feels like a necessary step to even get to that next step of the data. And if we do not do something like this, I wish there was a different mechanism for this, but then we don't have access to county dollars, we don't have access to the state dollars. So this, in my opinion, is a way for us to put in 10 cents on the dollar to get this, thing that's already a problem today and those thousand new housing units plus the extra growth that we have in this region will dis exacerbate this issue over the next three to five years so if we don't take necessary steps to start improving this now we are going to start introducing i believe public health and public safety concerns along that corridor as well you know if there's a public safety call that's around any type of uh time between let's just call it 7 30 and 9 a.m at NASCO through State Street corridor, there's going to be a delayed response. The same is going to be true around rush hour at the end of the day. these are things that aren't just the responsibility of those businesses and those condos and things that are right along the state street quarter project this is a major regional corridor cut through that's material different than plat and other areas because of the regional connect and of tissue that stays between those areas so again i just want to close by saying what the way i understand this in the order of operations is we're not voting on the whole cia the tip this is really if we do this this is the boundary this is what we're about to consider here and the second step is okay another legal step is for us to even explore the next step of this conversation we need to establish the board correct and at that point we will hit the next toll gates as we get more data then we can make the affirmative or not a decision to move forward with this project. These are necessary steps to even explore this as an option. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

That's a very good point. We're basically planning, kind of putting together a plan for if we do. And if the numbers aren't and the data comes back and it's not doable, then it's not. But at least we've taken the steps to be able to have the option. Yeah.

I just want to add one small point that you guys have covered most of everything. From what I found, I don't think there's any other product, any other format to finance a future large project such as this. SADs, as far as I know, are very specific and only cover like a few things, like a few utility items, et cetera. It doesn't fit this project. And in as much as, you know, the issue is a difficult one to swallow sometimes. It is the reality that the only way projects like this are funded are through this process. And the only way you qualify for those major grants are through this process. So before we can even answer all the questions, we need answers. We have to go. We have to walk through the steps. We have to go through this process.

Any more discussion or questions?

Okay. May I ask for a roll call? Treasurer Epikin?

Yes.

Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer?

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? No. Madam Chair, you have six yeas and one nay. All right.

Thank you. Resolution is adopted. If we could get a motion for 9.12. Okay.

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution to appoint the Corridor Improvement Authority Board.

Second. Okay, any discussion? I think we kind of covered that in the last conversation, but if anybody has any issues with the actual board that's presented.

Okay, roll call. Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer? Yes. Trustee Brabeck? Yes. Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Epikun?

Yes.

Madam Supervisor, you have seven yeas.

Okay, thank you. Resolution is adopted. May I please have a motion for 9.13?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution of support for Chad Tuff Foundation, Run Tuff, Chad Tuff, 1K and 5K on Saturday, September 27, 2026, Resolution 26-23. Support. Support.

Okay, any discussion? This is, I think everybody's familiar with this popular run in support of Chad Tuft. It's just one of the faralities of closing a road. All right, if I could get a roll call.

Trustee Jaffer?

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Epikin?

Yes.

Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Madam Chair, you have 78.

All right, resolution adopted, and if you can make it out for the run, please do.

uh... we have a motion for a nine point fourteen and she removed authorize the supervisor and clerk to enter into an agreement and associated distribution service writer and consolation new energy gas division l c for the townships natural gas account subject to the township attorney approval support okay uh... if i could actually ask uh... director west to come up and explain a little about this actually is a good cost savings and a good find uh... uh...

her department's part.

Good evening.

Hello. I tried to make the memo as detailed as I could because I know that this doesn't make a lot of sense. And sometimes when things feel too good to be true, they don't work out. But we have vetted this out pretty extensively, including contacting other municipalities who've been participating in this. Effectively, because they don't want utility companies to be monopolies, the Michigan Public Service Commission stepped in and required to have an alternative gas provider. They named Constellation Energy as one of those gas providers, and what they do is effectively cut administrative overhead costs out of it. So our natural gas provider, maintenance, all of those things are still provided through DTE Energy, but our billing is done through Constellation Energy. They basically sub-meter out off of that. And it gives a pretty significant savings. This is something that other municipalities in our local area, including Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti Township, Canton Township and others, are seeing real savings of. This is not just a pie-in-the-sky number. Many of them have been doing this for years and years and years to the point where they didn't even remember that they were part of this program any longer. So when we got the referral note, they were like, I don't know what you're talking about, and we had to go back through and get that understanding. But the estimate of our gas savings, so they did take a look at all of our accounts. We did run this through our finance department as well just to make sure that we were all shored up. But currently we're paying about $63,000 and change for our natural gas. And we would be paying about $39,722 for natural gas. So an annual savings of approximately $24,000. The other thing that they did, which was fantastic, but we fixed some billing errors along the way that they helped us realize as well. So they've been really open and understanding and answered a million questions for us in this process. If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to try to answer them.

I just want to comment that when Director West brought this to me, and she's like, it seems too good to be true. And she vetted it out with other jurisdictions and everything else, because we've been tasked to tighten our belt. And this is helping tighten the belt.

I should add, we get a lot of requests from third party providers to do these types of sub-metering things. And we've constantly researched and vetted and said, no, this is not correct. My staff takes this very seriously. This one in particular is only applicable to Wayne and Washtenaw County. That's it. Municipalities and Wayne and Washtenaw County. And so it's very specific to the provisions of the NPSC. And like I said, that's one of the reasons why we vetted it for so long. We've been looking at this for probably over a year. And then we've talked to other municipalities as well to make sure that it made complete sense.

Any comments or questions on this one?

comment is thank you for looking into this. It's $24,000 a year.

It's all we have in our gas metering costs. So this is part of our sustainability mission. I'll put credit out to our community engagement team as part of our community development department. We're constantly looking for reasons to help save and cut back. Shout out to the conference I was at today with the Michigan Sustainability Conference. And the Michigan Green Communities Challenge, it helps us think about these things and look at these things in detail to try to cut back on all of our energy savings, to reduce our climate impact, et cetera. But this is part of that sustainability mission.

So we're going to keep plugging away. When things are too good to be true, we're there. All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Thank you. Authorized. May I please have a motion for 9-15?

Madam Chair, I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign the first amendment to the land lease agreement with Selco Partnership doing business as Verizon Wireless, extending the lease term and modifying the associated lease provisions subject to the township attorney approval. Second.

Okay, and this is something that is a continuation of things that we've done in the past. This is the next one, too. I don't know if there's any questions on this discussion. All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That's authorized.

May I plead with motion for 9.16? May I move to authorize the supervisor and clerk to sign the uniform video service local franchise agreement with DirecTV LLC, continuing its authorization to provide video services within Pittsfield Charter Township, subject to the township attorney approval.

Second.

Okay. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That's authorized. May I please have a motion for 9.17?

Madam Chair, I move to approve first reading ZOA 26-236 to add section 40-11.51 to the zoning ordinance. Second. Okay.

And obviously this is just a follow-up to the public hearing we had earlier. Please note, again, there will be a second reading, and staff will be recommending changes to the noise limits. to implement clarification on the measurements. That will be actually more restrictive, so it won't be decreasing and making sure that we're more, nothing will be increased as a result of it, but there'll be some change, at least that change, to the next reading. Okay, any discussion or comments based on public feedback? All in favor? Aye. Let's do a roll call. Roll call?

Okay, sorry. I know, but I'm going to approve, yes. Okay, sorry, roll call.

Thank you.

Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Epikhin?

Yes.

Trustee Orta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer?

Yes.

Madam Chair, you have seven yays. Thank you.

Approved for the first reading, and we have a motion for 9.18.

Madam Chair, I move to approve first reading ZOA number 26-237 to add section 40-3.11 to the zoning ordinance.

Second. Okay, then just button it up. All right, roll call, please. Trustee Karami? Yes. Supervisor Riley? Yes. Clerk Anzaldi? Yes. Treasurer Eppekind? Yes. Trustee Erta Thompson? Yes. Trustee Jaffer?

Yes.

Trustee Brabeck?

Yes.

Madam Chair, you have seven A's. Thank you.

We almost made a full turnaround on the roll calls. I don't think we've done that in a long while. Since I've been up here, I don't think we have done it. All right, unfinished business. We don't have any liaison reports or trustee reports.

I'd like to share the summary of action from September 4th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission voted to approve the wetland permit and final site plan for CSPA 22-23 Fieldstone Park. Then the Planning Commission voted to state the 2025 final site plans extension for CSPA 19-20 located 4701 Carpenter Road until such time the Planning Commission makes a decision regarding the 2026 final site plan extension. The next meeting, Planning Commission meeting, will be on September 17 in Morse Hall and the Township Administration Building. Thank you.

And I think that the second one there, they're looking to property across from Amazon. When Amazon came in, some of the the roadways made a change, so they have to do another site plan, and they need another extension on that. And they've already done two, so it's out of the ordinary.

Yeah, asking for extension and it's going to be, you know.

Yeah, it might be an exception because of it being across from Amazon, but that's not necessarily how we would do things. There usually isn't a third extension, I believe, correct? Okay. Good information to have.

All right, any other liaison reports or, yes? The Historical District Commission, we have two positions that are available. One, we had a resignation from our architect, which we need to have an architect on the board. And also, unfortunately, we lost Janice Harwood. She passed away earlier in August, and we just found that out. So her position's up, too. So that's an update on our commission.

And I'd like to say that in October we're going to work with the district commission and the society and perhaps do a proclamation for Al Paz and then maybe a moment of silence for Janice Harwood and recognize that none of us are really aware. And we are working on those. Architect is a hard one, so if anyone does know an architect, please let us know. It lives in Pittsfield, clearly.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we'll open it up for public comment too. Any person may come forward at this time to address the board. Anyone who wishes to speak is requested but not required to state his or her name, their name, and address for the record. All right, seeing none, I'm going to head and, we're going to head ahead and adjourn at 7.52, but then we're going to take a five-minute break and then go right into working session, so. Five minutes, and we're meeting back here.

Madam Chair, I move to adjourn. Second.

All in favor? Aye. All right. Thank you.