On November 12, the Huron County Commission voted to create a PACE district by joining Lean & Green Michigan. Then, on December 5, in a unanimous, bipartisan vote, the Wayne County Commission followed suit. Thus, 2013 ended with a bang for clean energy finance in Michigan.
- Taken together, the two counties show how PACE makes sense for small, rural, agricultural areas and densely populated, highly industrialized, urban areas alike.
- Wayne County became the biggest local government in the USA outside of California to create a PACE district to date. Now that makes me Michigan proud!
- After Wayne County’s vote, five counties and two cities are participating in our PACE program.
- Lean & Green Michigan doubled in size again - in just one month. Today, 3,295,021 Michiganders live in Lean & Green Michigan PACE districts. That’s almost exactly 1/3 of Michigan’s entire population!
Explosive growth slated to continue in 2014. Many more Michigan jurisdictions are in the process of giving their businesses access to the Lean & Green Michigan clean energy finance market. Notable among them:
- On Dec. 4, the Washtenaw County Commission Ways and Means Committee took the first step in creating a PACE program with Lean & Green Michigan by voting unanimously to move a resolution of intent to the full commission. The Commission is expected to vote on the resolution on January 8 and hold a public hearing on January 22. Read about Washtenaw County’s progress here
- On Dec. 10, the Bay County Commission held a terrific hearing on PACE, in which the highly engaged commissioners asked many great questions about the program and how it could boost economic development. Bay County Executive Tom Hickner and Treasurer Rick Brzezinski are moving forward with discussions on implementation.
- Four more counties - east and west, north and south - are involved in advanced discussions and have plans to move forward in January, 2014.
Congratulations to all concerned!
Lean & Green Michigan online application goes live. Property owners and contractors who wish to submit energy efficiency, water efficiency and renewable energy projects for financing in any Lean & Green Michigan PACE jurisdiction can now do so with the touch of a button or click of a mouse!
- You can find the online application in a green box on the left side of the Lean and Green front web page:http://leanandgreenmi.com
- You can go straight to the online application (and bookmark the url) by clicking here
- You do not need complete information to use the application. Just submit as much as you have and we can help you gather the rest. Also, you may submit an application for a project in a jurisdiction that has not joined Lean & Green Michigan yet, and they will work with you to get your local government on board.
Let’s give thanks for what we have done together - and commit to improving Michigan’s business climate in 2014!
Finally, for those of you keeping track, here is the complete list of local governments that have created PACE districts with Lean & Green Michigan:
- City of Southfield, June 2012
- Ingham County, November 2012
- City of Rochester Hills, June 2013
- Macomb County, October 2013
- Saginaw County, October 2013
- Huron County, November 2013
- Wayne County, December, 2013
