MARSHALL, MI (WTVB) – The Michigan Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit aimed at derailing Ford Motor Company’s $2.5 billion electric vehicle battery park in Marshall.
In a brief order late last week, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated the Michigan Court of Appeals’ June dismissal of the case and ordered the appellate three-judge panel to reconsider it in light of a similar challenge decided in 2017 in Wexford County.
A group of local residents, known as “The Committee for Marshall not the Megasite,” filed a lawsuit against the City of Marshall in 2023.
In early 2024, a Calhoun County Circuit Court judge dismissed the lawsuit. The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that decision a few months later.
The committee appealed the dismissal, and now the Michigan Supreme Court is vacating the judgement of the Court of Appeals and remanding the case to that court for reconsideration.
In the lawsuit, the committee alleges Marshall city leaders improperly voted to rezone the land to industrial use, the step that gave Ford the go-ahead to build.
The group also alleges Marshall City Clerk Michelle Eubank failed to count signatures in a petition filed that opposed the rezoning.
While the committee claimed it submitted more than 800 signatures as part of its voting effort, only 136 were deemed valid by Eubank.
In a statement Ford Motor Company says
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Marshall Community and moving forward together. Construction of the building structure is complete, and the project is already generating economic benefits in Calhoun County and the surrounding region”
The Court of appeals has not yet set a date tore visit the case.
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