My town killed a solar farm over 'property values' and I finally said something at the meeting

Keith Martinez · 2026-09-24T12:55:09.418902+00:00

I sat through a zoning board meeting in Cheboygan two weeks ago that ran almost four hours, and the whole thing was about a 40 acre solar project on old farm land. About 30 people showed up to argue it would tank home prices and ruin the view, and the board voted it down 5 to 2. Here is the part that gets me. I was against solar farms for years myself, mostly because a guy I know swore the panels leak chemicals into the soil. So I looked it up, and that story traces back to one bad study that got pulled. Nobody at that meeting said a word about the abandoned gas station on Main that has been leaking into the creek since I was a kid. We shot down clean power to protect a view, but the actual mess in this town just sits there. Has anyone here actually gotten a solar project through a small town like this, and what finally changed people's minds?

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My town killed a solar farm over 'property values' and I finally said something at the meeting | Climate Action - The Community Guide