The House Natural Resources committee Wednesday passed HB 4746. Under Kyser vs. Kasson Twp, the Supreme Court ruled for the local units of government in saying that any challenge to zoning places the burden on party challenging the local unit of government. Before Kyser, the Court had acted under the Silva decision, which created the “no very serious consequences” rule. That rule said that the local unit of government could only turn down zoning for the extraction of natural resources if there are no very serious consequences. Silva was overturned by Kyser, though, which said that the “no very serious consequences” rule was not being applied uniformly and that the exclusionary zoning language in the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act was controlling law. HB 4746 would return the law to the Silva standard.
This bill was introduced on June 14th and passed committee on June 16th after a joint Senate and House Natural Resources Committee meeting. It is expected to pass the full House on June 21st, be considered in Senate committee on June 22nd, and pass the Senate the week of June 28th in order to be signed by the Governor before July 1st. The Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Townships Association are opposed to the legislation.
The bill was introduced as a result of a situation in Portage Township in the Upper Peninsula, where a township board used an exclusionary zoning provision to shut down an existing aggregate (gravel) operation.
Andy Schor is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. Contact him at (517) 908-0300 or by email at aschor@mml.org.
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