Marshall residents, township treasurer tell House panel they were sidelined in mega site planning

LANSING — Residents of Marshall and officials from Marshall Township told the Michigan House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments that planning for the Marshall "mega site," a large proposed electric‑vehicle battery campus, proceeded with secrecy and heavy state involvement and has harmed local property, environment and civic processes.

"It wasn't disclosed to us that our new home would be less than a half a mile from a proposed EV battery plant connected to the CCP," said Julianne Bryant, a Marshall resident, during testimony to the committee. She and other residents described nondisclosure agreements, a dark‑money campaign and the demolition of homes and farmland near the Kalamazoo River.

The testimony matters because it raises questions about the use of state tax dollars, local land‑use authority under a Public Act 425 land‑transfer agreement (PA 425), and whether residents were given a meaningful opportunity to weigh in as property was rezoned and cleared. Petition drives and lawsuits seeking a referendum on the rezoning are now before state courts, testimony and documents show.

In testimony, Glenn Kowalski, Marshall Township treasurer, described a multi‑year process in which local land use and infrastructure planning shifted from hundreds of acres to more than 2,000 acres and, as described by some residents, into a footprint of roughly 3,000 acres. Kowalski said the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance (MEDA) and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) applied for state grants beginning in 2019 to prepare water and site infrastructure and that members involved with planning were…