Putnam Township is going back to square one with its controversial rules for home-based businesses.

“Basically, we’re going to start the process all over again in the sense that the Planning Commission will look it over, and maybe make a few changes,” said Township Clerk Sally Guyon. “Maybe we’ll come up with a better ordinance that will make more people happy.”

The Putnam Township Board of Trustees sent the community’s two home-based business ordinance amendments back to the Planning Commission last week after Township Attorney Mike Homier explained that the board did not follow the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, thus making the rules defective.

The amendments regarding home-based business and home-based occupation had been the source of controversy in the township for two months, as residents petitioned to have them put up for an election and repealed.

However, Homier also announced last week that the petition language also violated state law because it sought to put two amendments on one petition.

Glenn Hood, a Putnam Township resident who criticized the amendments, said the decision was a good one. He hopes that the Planning Commission and Board of Trustees will work with the public in formulating the next set of rules for home-based businesses. Though the petition was ruled invalid, it still has the signatures of hundreds of Putnam Township voters who stood against the ordinance.

“It needed to be redone, and some of the home-based businesspeople need to be involved in what they’re writing,” Hood said. “There’s a better way to do things, and we’ve already looked at them. We’re trying to get things in line. They’re a little messed up right now, but everything can be squared away.”

Homier said the ordinance amendments were published 16 days after initial adoption, one day longer than Michigan law allows. in addition, they were not in the proper format.

Homier said errors like this aren’t uncommon, but they are important to address.

“It may seem like a harmless error,” he said, but cases out there show that failure to strictly adhere to the act of adopting ordinances could make them invalid.

Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Frank Konkel at (517) 552-2835 or at fkonkel@gannett. com.