JACKSON — Citing a number of health and safety issues that arose out of last year’s power outages, a significant number of senior citizens pressed the Jackson Township Council on Jan. 22 to simplify the process a resident must follow in order to install a permanent electrical generator at his home.
“The communities have a need. They have a need for health purposes, safety purposes and so on,” said Michael Yudkin, chairman of the Westlake buildings and grounds committee.
In the days following Post-Tropical Storm Sandy’s hammering of the east cost with wind and rain on Oct. 29 and a nor’easter that followed on Nov. 7, which dumped up to 1 foot of snow on the region, millions of people were left without electricity for up to two weeks in some areas.
About 90 percent of Jackson’s 54,000 residents were left without power immediately following Sandy. By late Nov. 2, more than 20,000 residents were still in the dark. Some residents were still getting their power back on Nov. 4.
“Superstorm Sandy really opened our eyes to a lot of things that could happen that could upset our everyday lives and we weren’t prepared for a lot of the things that [happened],” council President Ann Updegrave said.
Although the reality of being unable to charge a cell phone or use the Internet was the extent of the inconvenience for many people, the senior citizens who came before the council said they rely on electric equipment to assist them with breathing, and refrigeration to store medicine.
About 18 percent of Jackson’s population (9,700 residents) lives in retirement communities such as Westlake and Four Seasons.
“We are not here for comfort. This is a medical type of emergency. [My husband] is on an oxygen concentrator at night and he needs electricity,” Maryanne Quigley told the council as her husband, Mike, held a portable concentrator.
Generators like the ones being lobbied for by the residents are wired into a home’s electrical grid and are powered by natural gas or propane.
In order for a resident in Jackson to install such a generator, he must first apply for a variance with the Zoning Board of Adjustment and pay fees associated with the application process. There is no guarantee a variance will be granted by the board.
It is a process that Yudkin said was too time-consuming and financially difficult for most of the senior population.
“We are trying to make this quick,” Yudkin said. “We don’t want to have to go through and put [thousands] of variances from our community [before the zoning board].”
Members of council agreed that the fee structure associated with the variance process for a household generator — including a $900 escrow deposit for engineering and inspection costs — was too high.
“That number always seemed excessive to me,” Councilman Robert Nixon said. “Most of the people I have talked to would go through the process, but when you make it financially difficult to do so and treat a project like this as you would a larger structure … it makes it harder.”
Business Administrator Jose Torres estimated that the escrow fee could be lowered to between $350 and $400. From that amount, he said, the resident might still receive some money back.
With that being said, Township Attorney Denis Kelly warned against adopting an ordinance that would change the process altogether, as that action could cause more harm than good.
“There is no one cure-all and it probably is not appropriate at this time to adopt just one ordinance for whole-house generators because each individual home and application is going to raise different concerns and issues,” Kelly said.
Although most of the conversation regarding stationary generators dealt with the planned retirement community (PRC) zones in Jackson, Kelly noted that property setbacks and other requirements vary greatly among different communities.
“The setback requirements are much tighter and the lot sizes are a lot smaller [in the PRC zone] than they are in an R-1 or R- 3 [residential] zone,” Kelly said. “If the [generator] has to be 5 feet from the dwelling structure, you still have to be outside of the setback requirements.”
Because of the limited space between most homes in PRC zones, members of council were also concerned about the noise created by a generator, as well as possible exposure to carbon monoxide.
The council members agreed to draft an ordinance to be discussed on Feb. 13 that will address a reduction in escrow fees.
A subcommittee is expected to meet with representatives from Jackson’s retirement communities in an effort to address their issues regarding stationary generators.
“We want to make sure we get input from all of our communities,” Updegrave said.