The legal bill for Elmwood Township to continue an active role in the fight to stop an electrical substation from locating off M-72 stood at $9,000 one month ago - and is growing exponentially.

The Township Board on Tuesday night authorized its attorney to research whether a zoning change directly affecting substations and put on a fast track for approval by the township can be used to stop the project. Attorney Jim Young estimated the cost for the research at $2,000 to $4,000.

“I did not research these issues before because they were not pertinent to the appeal,” Young told the board.

Young said the township late last week received a letter from Jim Pagels, an attorney representing three opponents of the substation, requesting that the ordinance change approved on a 4-3 vote by the Township Board on March 11 be enforced to halt the substation. The township Planning Commission initiated and wrote the change as the township Zoning Board of Appeals was hearing an appeal filed to stop the substation. That appeal was turned down by the ZBA in a 3-2 vote that was upheld Monday by 13th Circuit Court judge Philip Rodgers Jr.

But the ordinance change was quickly approved — especially by Elmwood Township standards — ahead of a rewrite of the township Zoning Ordinance. Throughout the process, township officials including former community planner Bill Swanson said the ordinance change would not affect the existing substation application.

All that may have changed Tuesday, when the board voted 4-0, with trustee Terry Lautner abstaining, to authorize Young to investigate the township’s chances of enforcing its ordinance.

Young gave the board two choices: Not to take up the opponents’ case, or authorize him to conduct legal research. The board chose the later, while rebuking critics who during the public comment portion of the meeting accused the board of not “acting in good faith” when changing the ordinance after Wolverine Power Cooperative had agreed to cooperate with the township approval process, and interjecting politics into the issue.

Said trustee Paul Walter about the “good faith” issue: “That could be in question as well because (the substation) was sprung on people without any advance notice.”

Added supervisor Derith Smith: “I believe this board has made every effort to adhere to the process … if this were a homeowner trying to build a home, we would have gone through the process.”

But the township’s efforts have come with a price. Clerk Connie Preston, who said after the meeting she would not have voted for the ordinance change had she known it could be used to stop the substation, confirmed that the township legal bill as of March 11 stood at $9,000. That was before preparation for the Circuit Court appeal, and attendance at the circuit court hearing and board meeting by Young.

The cost took another jump of up to $4,000 with the board vote Tuesday — with no guarantee that an answer to the zoning enforcement question would be found.

“Knowing Michigan law like I do, I don’t think we’re going to find anything definitive,” Young told the board.

Unbudgeted legal and Planning Commission costs were cited as reasons that the township’s 2007 budget finished in the red, along with increased fire department expenses. Two fire millage requests failed in 2007.

Wolverine Power Cooperative is seeking to build an electrical substation on 8.7 acres off M-72 near an existing turbine windmill. Lautner has signed an agreement to sell the property to Wolverine. A former township zoning administrator, upon advise from Young, approved the project as allowed under the zoning ordinance in August. However, a neighbor and the developers of an adjacent subdivision sought an opinion from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Traverse City Light & Power, Consumers Energy and Cherryland Electrical Cooperative are partners in the project, which industry officials say is need to provide reliable electrical power to Leelanau County.