The planning commission in Eaton County’s Hamlin Township is giving a bitcoin mining operation the proverbial cold shoulder after getting more than an earful from residents opposed to the project.
Township planners on Wednesday denied the Grand River Power Company’s request to change the zoning on company land near Smithville Dam from agricultural to industrial during a public hearing.
The power company installed a bitcoin mining container on the property earlier this year without notifying township officials, according to township zoning administrator Denise Perkins.
Alyssa Timler, a Smithville Road resident, presented a petition to the commission from 14 residents who could not attend the hearing, but wanted their voices heard.
Timler was pleased after the commission rejected the zoning change.
“I’m very happy,” she said. “We lost an entire freezer of meat, we’ve experienced the brownouts. It makes us happy to not have that across the road or at least the potential of not having it across the road”
Resident worries included having a loud high-pitched, round-the-clock noise, possible lower property values, sudden power outages and future industrial growth in a predominantly quiet neighborhood near Smithville Dam.
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At least four large scale bitcoin mining operations have been identified in Michigan, with three in the Upper Peninsula and one in the southwest part of the state, according to Bridge Michigan.
In November, Perkins said that township officials issued the cease-and-desist order on Oct. 1, a couple of days after finding out about the bitcoin mining container. Officials then notified residents living within 1,000 feet of Smithville Dam about the public hearing on Nov. 10.
Keith Barber, chairperson of the Planning Commission for nearly three years, said that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission received a complaint from someone and is now investigating the bitcoin operation because it might be too close to a power production facility. He said he did not know who complained to FERC.
Barber was delighted with Wednesday’s turnout, but not because of the number of residents who showed up to oppose the project.
“Hopefully after they heard some of the questions and some of the discussion, some of the fears that they spoke out against may not be there now, maybe they feel more comfortable, and, or, they know their neighbor, which a lot of the time we don’t anymore,” he said.
“Do I feel bad for the applicant, yeah, because it’s his land, right? He would like to do something,” Barber added. “I totally agree with property rights, but sometimes we get in our own bubble and we don’t realize how our actions influence others, you know, and this is an opportunity for those individuals, for and against, can see how their actions influence others, right?.”
The Hamlin Township Board may rule on the commission’s recommendation in January.