Clinton Township residents are lining up this week against a plan to string new overhead transmission lines along 19 Mile Road to power Henry Ford Macomb Hospital’s expanded campus. Neighbors say the proposed poles would cut through backyards, wipe out mature trees and put a dent in property values, and some are openly worried about living so close to high-voltage lines. ITC Transmission has scheduled a series of public open-house sessions from Tuesday through Thursday so people can study maps and press company representatives for answers. The controversy flared again after township leaders and Macomb Community College tangled over a possible alternative route along Dalcoma Drive.
As reported by ClickOnDetroit, ITC Transmission wants to extend the Lenox-Stephens 120-kilovolt transmission line by about one mile so it can "loop into" the Shrine substation in Clinton Township, fulfilling a DTE Energy interconnection request tied directly to the hospital expansion. Neighbors near Hayes Road told the station they want the line shifted away from homes and balconies. Resident Daniel Callahan put it bluntly, telling the outlet, "Well, I wouldn’t want to see them come in here, no." The same reporting notes that an earlier attempt to reroute the project to Dalcoma Drive collapsed after township and college officials resisted the idea.
According to ITC's project site, the Shrine Project is essentially a one-mile extension of the Lenox-Stephens 120 kV line that the company says would give the hospital a quicker and lower-cost connection to the Shrine substation. ITC says the overhead line along 19 Mile Road could be energized roughly six to eight weeks after approvals are in hand, while an underground design or more complex Dalcoma alignment would stretch construction to about one year to 18 months. The company frames the work as necessary to handle the hospital’s post-expansion power load and has posted maps and FAQs on its site for residents to review.
Neighbors Say The Tradeoffs Are Too High
Homeowners in and around Westchester Village Condominiums and along Hayes Road say a fast build is not worth staring at 50-foot poles outside their windows. As ClickOnDetroit reported, residents have flagged possible health risks from living near the lines, worry about losing long-established landscaping, and fear their property values could take a hit. Those complaints have echoed through township meetings this spring, where trustees have faced packed rooms and steady, organized opposition.
Board Fight And A Rejected Alternative
Clinton Township trustees have pushed back on ITC’s preferred 19 Mile Road route, and an effort to shift the line onto Macomb Community College land along Dalcoma Drive has already stalled out. Macomb Community College’s meeting minutes from May 21, 2025 show a lengthy discussion of the Dalcoma alignment and record the board’s decision not to grant easements for that alternate path. The minutes also reference emails and technical exhibits traded among the college, the township and project supporters. Local coverage by C & G Newspapers details the Clinton Township Board’s June 2, 2025 vote to deny ITC’s special-use permit and the wider neighborhood push to find a route that residents see as less disruptive.
Legal And Regulatory Path
ITC representatives have cautioned that if local zoning keeps the project bottled up, they could seek approvals at the state level, a possibility their attorneys raised in earlier public meetings, according to reporting by C & G Newspapers. At the same time, the Michigan Public Service Commission notes that the Electric Transmission Line Certification Act, known as Act 30, generally applies to much larger projects, typically lines more than five miles long and at 345 kV or above. That means it is not automatic that the roughly one-mile, 120 kV Shrine Project would be pulled under that statute. Even so, the MPSC explains that Act 30 requires pre-filing public meetings and gives affected landowners the right to intervene, which makes this week’s open houses a key chance for residents to get their concerns formally on the record.
What’s Next
ITC is staging a trio of open-house sessions where residents can walk through maps and talk directly with project staff. Two will be held at the Italian American Cultural Society Banquet Center and one at Havel Elementary School later this week, according to ITC’s project site. Company representatives say they will be on hand to take questions about routing, design and construction details and to log feedback from anyone who shows up. After those meetings, ITC may tweak its proposal or move toward formal filings. If the fight escalates, the dispute could shift into a regulatory docket, where neighbors would have an official channel to intervene.
Both sides now head into these public sessions with a lot on the line, from backyard sightlines to hospital reliability. How officials weigh speed, cost and neighborhood impact will decide whether new poles go up along 19 Mile Road or the project gets redirected, and this week’s meetings are shaping up as the first real public stress test of that choice.
