Lincoln City Council
City hears Mulligan Solar request for Enterprise Zone

 

[February 11, 2021] 

This week, the Lincoln City Council resumed holding Tuesday night Committee of the Whole Workshops. The meetings, typically held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. With positive numbers dropping in Logan County and throughout the state, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker had announced that the mitigation restrictions have been lifted and the state is back in “Phase Four” recovery.

The city had voluntarily limited its business meetings to two per month to reduce exposure among the aldermen when gathered.

The first item on the Tuesday workshop agenda was a discussion with Erin Baker and Kyle Barry of Apex Clean Energy/Mulligan Solar regarding enterprise designation for a solar farm to be built in Logan County. The two participated in the meeting remotely.

The farm will be located outside the city limits in the county proper. Mulligan has been discussing the farm with the Logan County Board for the past several months. After having received approval for the enterprise zone designation from the county in January, the company next has to seek similar approval from the city of Lincoln as an enterprise zone partner with the county.

According to information presented to the county in June of 2020 the farm will be located three mile south of Lincoln with boundary coordinates being 1300th Street to the north, Salt Creek to the east, 1100th Street to the south and 800th Street to the west. From the county board report authored by LDN’s Angela Reiners, “Barry said Mulligan's application is for a solar energy system that would generate up to 70 megawatts (MW) across 874 acres of participating parcels.

The project would interconnect to the existing Ameren Fogarty 138 kV substation, which is located northeast of the town of Broadwell. The interconnection facilities, or “Project substation,” would be located with the Fogarty substation on an adjacent parcel.”

The county approved the solar farm at the June 19, 2020 meeting.

Mulligan returned to the county board in January, 2021 to request an enterprise zone designation.

Tuesday evening, Baker and Barry offered an overview of the project and their request for EZ designation.

When they were finished, City Treasurer Chuck Conzo was the first to ask questions of the two. He wondered if the city would be receiving an annual fee for the zone designation as it has with other requests. Barry said they were not aware that such a fee was required, but that the company might be open to discussion.

Acting Mayor Tracy Welch said that City Administrator Beth Kavelman had approached that topic with the county’s zoning officer, Will D’Andrea, who oversees the Enterprise Zone. D’Andrea had told Kavelman that Mulligan was not prepared to pay. Kavelman added though, that in the past, those who received the designation did pay. She noted as an example Formosa, who paid $5,000 per year to have the designation.

Baker said that all Mulligan would benefit from is the sales tax exemptions it could take during construction of the facility. She said when construction was completed, they would no longer benefit. She noted that perhaps that was different with other companies that had sought the designation. Barry noted that the actual tax exemption is use tax paid to the state. However, Conzo said that a portion of that use tax comes back to the municipality.

Welch noted that the county board vote to approve the Mulligan request was not unanimous. He wondered what the “sticking points” had been for county board members.

Baker said she felt that the no votes on the county side stemmed from “a misunderstanding of the benefits and the cost to the county.” She said that it was true that there would be no direct revenue coming from the solar farm to the county, but there would be a big residual impact with dollars spent in the community by workers along with the use of some local contractors and materials, such as gravel haulers.

Welch asked what the life of the farm would be. Baker said the life expectancy of the solar farm is 30 years. She said that at the end of the term, Mulligan would then decommission the farm and provide a full restoration of the land.

Conzo asked for more thoughts from Barry and Baker on the residual benefits to the community. Both supplied information about employment opportunities. They said that the farm construction phase would employ hundreds of people, and there would be four permanent positions afterward, two full-time and two part-time.

Kevin Bateman noted that with the construction of the Sugar Creek Wind Farm, the farm brought lots of people to town. Rental properties were utilized for housing for workers and their families. Those same people also bought goods and services in the community, generating sales tax that does come back in part to the city.

The council went on to discuss the giving away of available land for the zone. Adding another 1.4 square miles to the current designation would decrease availability for the next request.

Welch noted that he had talked with D’Andrea who noted that if the city goes along with what the county has approved, then both are opening the door to additional solar farms in the county.

It was noted that the county and city have to approve adding language to the existing guidelines for zoning eligibility that will be more generic, not specific to just Mulligan. As a result many companies could be interested in the future.

Baker said that was true at the moment, but it could change. She said that wind farms don’t need to apply for enterprise zone because they are classified by the government as “High Impact Businesses.” Currently solar farms are not designated as such, but could be in the near future. With the high impact business designation, the companies would get their tax breaks from government programs other than enterprise zone

Barry said that before working for Mulligan, he had served as legal counsel for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. As such he had worked with enterprise zone matters on a state level. Because of this, he knows that the company does not have to have the EZ designation for its entire 30 years. Once construction is completed, the county and city could approve decertification and recover their 1.4 square miles.

As the discussion wound down, Welch asked if the aldermen were ready to put a question on the voting agenda for next week. He thought it might be good to get more information from the county and give the topic another round of discussion at the C.O.W. on February 23rd. Jeff Hoinacki said he wanted to wait, and by nod of the head, others in the room seemed to agree.

Barry and Baker were advised that they would be invited to attend the next meeting via remote conferencing and that discussion would continue at that time.

[Nila Smith]

Related

06/10/2020 - Largest solar farm planned for central Logan County gets first nod

06/16/2020 - Solar applicants question need for road use agreement

06/19/2020 - Largest Logan County solar farm decided

01/11/2021 - Mulligan Solar seeks Logan County Enterprise Zone designation while preparing to meet conditional use requirements

01/25/2021 - Logan County extends Sugar Creek Wind One project time, approves Enterprise Zone for Mulligan Solar Project