Photo by Greg Chandler

By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record

A judge was expected to rule Wednesday afternoon on a lawsuit filed by the ­developer of the proposed Silver Maple solar project in Zeeland and Jamestown townships against a family whose land ­encompasses about 30 percent of the project footprint.

RWE Solar Development, LLC alleges members of the Smallegan family refused to allow the company and its contractors access to their property, in violation of four separate leases that were signed by family members in ­November 2020, and that were extended by the company via option on Nov. 19, 2025. The family claims they were never properly notified of the option being exercised on their land.

Named in the suit are the Jim A. Smallegan Declaration of Trust, the James A. Smallegan Trust, the Patricia A. Smallegan Trust, James M. “Jimmy” Smallegan, Patricia Smallegan and Kristi Smallegan. Their property covers 562.8 acres of the 1,914 acres of farmland planned for Silver Maple, a proposed $330 million, 200-megawatt solar ­ facility that RWE is seeking approval for through the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Judge Jon Hulsing heard more than nine hours of testimony in the suit last Thursday in 20th Circuit Court in Grand Haven. He was scheduled to issue a ruling in the case at 3 p.m. Wednesday. (Details of the ruling will be published in the Oct. 22 edition of The Zeeland Record.)

The suit alleges RWE exercised its ­option, granting the company “the lease and easement rights to access the (Smallegan) properties to develop, construct and operate a solar farm project.”

Furthermore, the suit says RWE paid the Smallegans to “maintain the exclusive lease option for a period of five years; and access the properties to survey, develop, construct and operate the solar project for a period of 34 years and 11 months upon exercise of the options.”

RWE attorney Brandon Hubbard said the suit was about enforcing contracts that the Smallegans agreed to.

“Each contract was for five years, and each allowed my client to evaluate the land. My client wanted to later use the land for the solar project. My client had the ­option to do that,” Hubbard said in his opening statement.

“It’s also something to which the Smallegans agreed. A series of unfortunate events followed – events that were orchestrated by the Smallegans and a man named Daniel Kerkstra. Together, they prevented my client’s personnel from ­accessing the land,” Hubbard added.

In their testimony, Jimmy and Patricia Smallegan said they signed the leases under the understanding that RWE was going to conduct a five-year study of their land to see if a solar project was viable – not that they agreed to a project being built on their property. Jimmy said he was never ­informed of the study outcome.

“If there had been any siting done, I think we would have gotten some information about it, whether it was even viable or not,” Jimmy Smallegan said. “You would have thought they would have done some study in the first three years-plus and they didn’t – (not) that we had ever heard anything. There was no communication.”

Jimmy Smallegan said several times that the notice of RWE exercising its option was never delivered to him. Hubbard asked Smallegan what the defendant meant by the word “delivery.” 

“We expected physical delivery (of the notices) if I thought they were going to do that,” Smallegan said. 

“I, James M. Smallegan, did not receive paperwork at 1904 56th Ave. (his residential address), not for the exercise of the ­option.”

Hubbard presented as evidence an email dated Nov. 14, 2025 from RWE project manager Joe Brochu to Smallegan Farms, a dairy farm that has been owned by the family for several generations. The email said that packages had been sent overnight via FedEx to various Smallegan-owned properties, containing notices of RWE’s intent to exercise its option. In a response email the following day, Smallegan Farms acknowledged receipt of the notices, Hubbard said.

Jimmy Smallegan testified that he did not have access to the farm’s email account, that the email was answered by his sister, Sherry Egan, who is the office manager for Smallegan Farms. Egan is not named in the lawsuit. Patricia and Kristi Smallegan, likewise, said they did not receive notices.

While Patricia Smallegan said that she had not received the package containing the notices, she cashed two checks earlier this year from RWE, each for $141,204. The company said those were payments covered under the extension of the lease. But Patricia Smallegan said during her testimony that’s not how she understood it.

“I still thought we had the option to make that decision yet (to end the lease),” she said.

Jimmy and Kristi Smallegan also received checks from RWE this year under the option, but did not cash them, they stated in their testimony.

On May 30, an incident occurred at one of the Smallegan-owned properties. A survey team from SWCA, an environmental consulting firm that has worked with RWE on the Silver Maple project, had come onto to the property when they were confronted by Jimmy Smallegan and Kerkstra, who had purchased nearly 18 acres of land from Smallegan last year. The men alleged the SWCA team was trespassing on the property, and Smallegan made a phone call to make a report to law enforcement.

However, Alyssa Spiering, an archaeologist and leader of the SWCA team, testified that Kerkstra yelled at her, using profanity. She said that Kerkstra and Smallegan parked their trucks “within one inch” of her vehicle.

“’Trespasssing is a good way to get shot. You’re lucky we didn’t shoot you,’” Spiering quoted Kerkstra as saying. 

“I was very concerned and scared. I tried to talk to the men, but that wasn’t a possibility,” she added.

Jimmy Smallegan said he did not hear Kerkstra make that statement. “He was there before I was there. I don’t know what he said before I got there,” he said.

Kerkstra won the Republican primary for township supervisor in August and is unopposed in the November general election.

RWE is asking the court to grant the company “the exclusive and unconditional right to enter upon and possess the Properties for any purposes RWE determines necessary, useful, or appropriate in furtherance of the Project.” It also asks the court to forbid the Smallegans from “threatening, violating or otherwise interfering RWE’s property rights as to the subject Properties,” and award the plaintiff costs, expenses and attorney fees connected to the lawsuit.

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