Detroit City Council debates length of solar initiative review

Detroit City Council members are at odds over the amount of time required to review a proposal to install solar fields in residential areas.

The big picture: The solar program is an effort by the city to clean up blighted areas and offset municipal greenhouse gas emissions. City Council has a complex list of items to review as members decide whether to approve moving the program forward.

• The program would employ contractors including DTE to operate solar fields, while paying resident volunteers inside the proposed field areas to leave to make way for them, and giving nearby homeowners energy efficiency upgrades.

Friction point: While many support the plan, some council members and residents have concerns about the legality of using residential land for solar projects and how the plan involves DTE without addressing the broader issue of high DTE energy bills.

Between the lines: Some council members, including Angela Whitfield-Calloway, proposed waiting to vote until lawmakers return from a monthlong summer recess, which starts mid-next week.

• "Frankly, I don't know if we'll be able to solve the legal protections that we need in two weeks," council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero said Tuesday.
• Member Scott Benson highlighted the work already done over three weeks in committee to understand the proposal, with Coleman Young II saying "time kills deals."

The latest: This week, City Council received a confidential outside legal opinion regarding the solar plan's use of eminent domain and zoning issues. Although members had heard from the city's lawyers, council sought an additional opinion.

What's next: The council plans to host a non-public session to discuss the various documents swirling around this proposal, then could vote Tuesday or wait until after its recess.