Should Niles residents be allowed to use outdoor wood boilers within the city’s residential areas?

Niles City Council will be debating this very issue during a special committee of the whole meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday in city council chambers, 1345 E. Main St.

On the agenda is a proposed ordinance restricting the use of outdoor wood boilers, also known as exterior wood burning furnaces, recommended by Niles Fire Chief Larry Lamb and City Administrator Ric Huff.

Huff said the concern is how smoke from the boilers would affect neighbors in tight-lot spacing in the city.

“If someone puts one of these in the backyard and you live next door and the wind is blowing the right way, the odds are that the smoke from this burner is going to blow right on your house,” Huff said.

Outdoor wood boilers are typically the size of a large doghouse with a short chimney. The fire box is surrounded by a water jacket that is heated by the fire and pumped into the home to provide heat.

Huff said the boilers are common in the rural areas of upper Michigan where smoke isn’t a concern because houses are generally spaced far apart.

“There are some studies concerned with the particulate matter that comes out of them and the potential health hazards of that when you are living in close proximity to them,” he said.

Huff said the city has received around eight or nine inquiries from people wanting to put boilers in town over the last two years. He said he knows of one currently within city limits.

Residents already in possession of an outdoor wood boiler would be grandfathered in, meaning they could still have and use the boiler, Huff said.

The city placed a moratorium on the installation of the units in February 2011.

Violating the ordinance would result in a municipal civil infraction, meaning a possible fine, but no jail time.

The proposed ordinance would allow for use of the boilers in industrially zone areas.