Logan County Board approves five applications for solar gardens

 

[November 28, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

On Tuesday, November 20, the Logan County Board held its Regular Board meeting, voting on several motions and resolutions and hearing a few committee updates. One focus of discussion was the approval of five special use permits for solar gardens at a property near the Cob plant in Mount Pulaski.

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

Five motions for resolutions for special use permits for solar gardens were brought forward by Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman Schaffenacker.

At Thursday’s board workshop, Edgar Lara of Novel Solutions said the state wants to expand its solar portfolio to 3,000 megawatts by 2030. To be eligible for the lottery system, those wanting to construct solar gardens must submit completed applications, utility agreements, and permits.

Lara said there are five applications for solar gardens being submitted because of the way the state lottery system for the solar projects works. He said the Cates, landowners wanting to install a solar garden on their property, just want one project, but submitting five applications gives them more of a chance of being selected.

Lara said with all the applications, there is still only about a 10 percent chance of being chosen in the lottery system.

Lara said the state would let the company move around applications if more than one is selected, so it could be used for other sites in different counties. He said they need to submit applications for plausible sites.

Lara said there is no rush to force construction, and the company will only move forward for sites they get funding on.

The Logan County Regional Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of all five applications at their November 7th meeting.

At a Zoning Board of Appeals Public Hearing held November 8th, the ZBA approved all but one of the applications due to some concern about solar panels causing interference with the neighbor’s internet connection.

Planning and Zoning Chairman Scott Schaffenacker brought forward five motions that included two different resolutions to approve a special use permit for a one-MW solar garden and three different resolutions to approve a special use permit for a two-MW solar garden.

Board Chairman Chuck Ruben said he thought they should probably include a sunset clause in the resolutions just as the board did with the wind farms. He asked whether this clause would be something they could include in the future for solar gardens.

Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea said the special use permits “follow the conditional use process” and “built into that process, it specifically states that a conditional use will sunset and expire in five years.”

D’Andrea said the language is limited to conditional use, but since special uses follow that process, the sunset clause saying it expires in five years could be explicitly added as another condition of the special use. He said it could be included in future motions.

Board member Kevin Bateman motioned to amend the motions to include the five-year sunset clause.

The board unanimously approved this amendment and the main motion as amended.

Schaffenacker then made motions to approve each resolution with the five-year sunset clause added in.
Before voting on the motion for the fourth motion, there was brief discussion.

Schaffenacker said the Zoning Board of Appeals had recommended denial of the fourth site based on its location in relation to the neighbor. Schaffenacker said the landowner was not at the ZBA hearing and the landowner has not reached out to him about it.

Board member David Hepler asked about what the ZBA vote was on that motion.

Schaffenacker said it was 4-2 (with 4 voting no).

Ruben said these applications are just to get “placeholders” in for the lottery system that will choose what applications for solar gardens will be approved. He asked Lara if the site was one of the prime locations to be used if picked or whether another location would be more likely.

Lara said that location would not be chosen even if the project gets drawn in the lottery system, but more applications give them more of a chance of one being chosen.

Schaffenacker’s motion for the fourth site passed 8-3.

Bateman, Blankenship, Davenport, Estill, Farmer, Hepler, Luster and Ruben voted yes. Schaffenacker, Sanders and Welch voted no.

The next Regular Board meeting will be Tuesday, December 18th at 7 p.m. in the Logan County Courthouse.

[Angela Reiners]