Sugar Creek Wind Farm modifications approved and expected to begin construction in January

 

[June 28, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

At the Logan County Regular Board meeting held Tuesday, June 19, the board voted on amendments to the Sugar Creek Wind Farm project.

Board members present were Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Gloria Luster, Gene Rohlfs, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders, Scott Schaffenacker and Annette Welch.

Guests included Dave Wagner of Apex, Stan Komperda of American Wind Energy, Attorney Kyle Barry, Logan County Department of Public Health Administrator Don Cavi, Logan County Department of Public Health Director of Environmental Health Ryan Williams, and Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea.

Planning and Zoning Committee update

Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman Scott Schaffenacker brought forward three motions from the committee. There were additional amendments to each motion.

The first was a motion to approve an amendment to a conditional use permit for Sugar Creek Wind Farm.

Amendment one to this motion was made to condition 32. D’Andrea said this condition means “the applicant is committing to working with farmers and aerial applicators to shut down to create spray lanes.”

D’Andrea said it is based on Hilltopper’s agreement and letters will be sent to property owners.

At the workshop, Wagner expressed some concern with the original language. D’Andrea said the issue with original language was that it could be argued that the county was requiring a signed agreement with owners or applicators. That would put the applicant into a possible predicament if they could not get a non-participating landowner to sign an agreement, which was not the intent of the original condition.

D’Andrea said the county is looking for a commitment, in the form of this condition, that the applicant would have to follow in the future.

Board member Kevin Bateman then motioned for an amendment to allow concrete work and tower construction base work at night due to weather constraints.

Dave Wagner, Senior Development Manager at Apex Clean Energy, said the Apex Construction Division has asked about amending or adding language to the sunrise to sunset condition. He said their rationale is it is safer to do some things at night. Their biggest concern was pouring concrete foundations in the middle of July. Wagner said they could talk to Will D’Andrea or the board on a case-by-case basis.

Board Chairman Chuck Ruben said when Railsplitter Wind Farm was doing construction, they set the Nacelles (which house all the generating components of a wind turbine) at night due to wind conditions.

Board member Bob Sanders asked if Apex should let D’Andrea know when night work would be done, and Ruben said that would be prudent.

D’Andrea said if people called with questions about the work, he would let them know night work was approved.

Bateman said the night work should not include road construction.

Amendment two to allow to allow concrete work and tower construction base work at night passed 11-1 with Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Gloria Luster, Gene Rohlfs, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders and Annette Welch voting yes. Scott Schaffenacker voted no.

Amendment one with condition 32 added passed unanimously.

The main motion to approve the amendment to the conditional use permit for Sugar Creek Wind Farm also passed unanimously.

The second motion was to approve a conditional use permit for Sugar Creek Wind Farm. Two parcels are being added to the project.

The same amendments that were made to the previous motion were made for this one.

Amendment one passed 11-1 with Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Gloria Luster, Gene Rohlfs, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders and Annette Welch voting yes. Scott Schaffenacker voted no.

Amendment two passed unanimously
The main motion as amended passed unanimously.

The final motion brought forward from the Planning and Zoning Committee was to leave Turbine Tower Permit Fees at $20 per foot of height. There was a motion last month to raise fees to $25 per foot of height, but the board sent the issue back to the Planning and Zoning Committee for more discussion.

At the Planning and Zoning Committee meeting, Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea had a list of other counties’ fees and said several are $25 per foot of height, but the range is between $12 and $25.

Board Chairman Chuck Ruben said the item was sent back so Invenergy could speak to the committee about the fees.

Three representatives from Invenergy, a wind farm company, were at the committee meeting. Invenergy’s Katya Samoteskul said that many counties they have looked at have smaller fees and increasing the fees to $25 [per foot of height] would make fees about $12,000 per turbine, which makes it hard to be competitive. She said the wind energy field is getting more competitive.

Samoteskul asked that the fees remain the same.

Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman Scott Schaffenacker said increasing the fees to $25 is competitive with some of the other counties.

Other members thought the fees should remain the same and Ruben said it would be simpler to leave them at $20. Ruben said bigger heights may compensate for fewer towers.

Nick Del Zappo of Invenergy said the greatest revenue comes in when the project is built and anything that makes it less competitive may close off opportunities for greater benefits.

Committee member Dave Blankenship made a motion to keep the fees at $20 to be competitive, and the committee passed the motion.

Schaffenacker brought forward the motion to the full board to leave Turbine Tower Permit Fees at $20 per foot of height. He then amended the motion to raise the Turbine Tower Permit Fees to $25 per foot of height.

Board member David Hepler said he understands the reasoning behind raising fees, but [these companies] are selling a commodity right now and the county has a reputation of being friendly to [the wind] industry. Hepler said the county made a nice deposit from the fees a few months ago. He said raising fees could be a “disincentive” to another project and wants to leave fees where they are at.

Board member Kevin Bateman said raising the fee by $5 might lose the county money due to jeopardizing projects. He said they could lose potentially millions of dollars in fees, money spent in the county, and taxes.

Schaffenacker said raising the fees would amount to a fraction of a percentage point in the project’s overall budget.

Bateman said it would be a twenty percent increase, which results in hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it is not just a small percentage, but quite a large chunk of money.

Schaffenacker said hundreds of thousands of dollars in a three or four hundred-million-dollar project is a fraction of a percentage.

Schaffenacker’s amendment to raise the fees failed 7-5 with Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Gloria Luster voting no. Gene Rohlfs, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders, Scott Schaffenacker, and Annette Welch voted yes.

The main motion to keep the permit fees at $20 per foot of height passed with Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Gloria Luster, Chuck Ruben, and Annette Welch voting yes. Gene Rohlfs, Bob Sanders and Scott Schaffenacker voted no.

[Angela Reiners]

Past related information:

• Sugar Creek Wind Farm developers seek approval of changes and fewer turbines