Logan County Board approves two zoning requests for future solar farms

 

[August 23, 2024] 

Beginning at 6 p.m. on the evening of August 20th, the Logan County Board met for their monthly regular board meeting. With the exception of James Glenn, all board members were present. On the agenda were twenty motions from the Finance Committee, as well as three motions from the Zoning and Economic Development Committee. The meeting was led by Chairman Emily Davenport.

After the Pledge of Allegiance was said, Davenport opened the floor for public comments, of which there were several.

Brittney Krebsbach of Pivot Energy was the first to speak. As she did in the Workshop meeting last week, Krebsbach spoke on some of the details regarding the proposed solar farm project in Atlanta. Pivot Energy’s proposed solar project will generate 1.4 megawatts of energy on 10.5 acres of land. Pivot Energy is also planning on donating about $7,000 to the Spartan Promise Counsel.

Krebsbach then addressed some of the concerns she heard about at the Workshop meeting. She assured everyone that, to receive energy from this project, a household must be an Ameren customer within Illinois. She also addressed the property taxes Pivot Energy would be paying for the land. Currently, that land generates about $1,000 in taxes annually. That number would jump to about $8,000, with about $90,000 estimated to be generated over the lifetime of the project.

The next person to speak was James Spellman. Spellman spoke on the proposed rezoning of a parcel of land near Forest Hills Road from residential to agricultural. The reason behind this rezoning is for Spellman to sell the land to EnPower Solutions, a Birmingham, Alabama based company, for the purpose of building a solar farm project. Spellman shared a lot of similar information to what he shared during the Workshop meeting. He also informed the board that this land has been in his family for 125 years. Spellman shared his desire to give back to the Lincoln community, believing that he can best do that through providing the land for this proposed solar project. He shared that he does not believe the solar farm would be seen from the houses on Forest Hills Road, as the land that is being proposed for the rezoning is on the other side of a hill.

Crystal Alley was the next person to speak. As someone who lives on Forest Hills Road, Alley stated that she is against the project. Alley also spoke at the Workshop meeting, and shared many of her same concerns. Alley stated that the foliage that would block the solar panels from view from her home is not present all year round. Between about October to April, the foliage is gone. This could, Alley argued, cause a glare from the panels to shine into residents’ homes during certain times in the day. Alley also stated that since the land was being sold to an organization outside Lincoln, there is no guarantee it would be sold back after the lifetime of the project. Alley ended her time by urging the board to once again vote no on the proposed rezoning.

At this time, Krebsbach spoke once again to clarify that Pivot Energy was not the company associated with the Forest Hills project.

Several other residents of the Forest Hills community spoke next, each stating their disapproval of the proposed rezoning. Chuck Fricke made the point that if EnPower gets the land, they may want to upgrade their solar farm in the future. Fricke also shared his concerns with what the proposed solar farm could do to the local wildlife. Two fawn were born in his backyard, something that would likely not happen, Fricke argued, with a solar farm being built in the animals’ natural habitat. Fricke also asked why Logan County was being selected, and not somewhere else along I-55. Fricke continued by making the point that the trees that are next to where the solar farm would be could block some of the sunlight in the morning hours, making that location not a prime one. Fricke ended his time by sharing that, the last time the board voted on rezoning land in the Forest Hills community (which was unanimously voted down), he overheard a conversation after the meeting. According to Fricke, two board members (who he chose not to name) had a conversation with the person looking to acquire the land, urging them to reapply.

Tom Tiffany, another Forest Hills resident, shared that he has lived there for the past 60 years and was against the proposed rezoning. According to Tiffany, the soil where the proposed solar project would go is sandy. Irwin was unsure if this could potentially cause chemicals from the solar panels to leak into the ground easier.

Samuel Bates of EnPower was present via a Google Meet call and spoke next. Bates addressed some of the concerns that were brought up. According to Bates, EnPower’s solar panels are only made of steel and glass. This being the case, they would not leach anything into the soil. Bates also stated that EnPower does not believe the community solar array would affect the residents of Forest Hills. He shared that, while EnPower was only looking to acquire the parcel of land that the proposed solar project would be built on, Spellman told them it was “all of nothing.” That being the case, they would buy all of the land, but would be open to selling the land they are not planning on using to members of the community.

Bates also shared some of the benefits this solar project could have for the wider Lincoln community. According to Bates, the power generated by this solar array would stay in the community and only be provided to Lincoln residents. Bates also shared that EnPower is looking to make a $120,000 donation to Hope on 5th if they are approved to build in Lincoln.

The next people to speak were several representatives with Enel Green Power. Enel is a company responsible for running and maintaining some of the wind farms in the area. The representatives were Justin Trenary, Shaun Strickland, Jesse Puckett, and Matthew Saville. Trenary shared that there had recently been some significant changes in Enel’s leadership. The four representatives present were there to introduce themselves and address some concerns the community had previously voiced to them.

Trenary introduced Saville, the new local manager of Enel’s Lincoln wind farm. Saville told the board and those in attendance a bit about himself, sharing that he and his family had recently become Lincoln residents. Saville shared that he wants the local project to be successful while also helping the community.

Trenary then got back up to address some concerns. First, the Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS) had been complained about by several community members. According to Trenary, people’s complaints were not liking that they could see the red lights on at night. Trenary shared the purpose and function of the ADLS. The purpose is to make sure that pilots are aware of the locations of the turbines in the dark. Trenary shared that with how the system functions, the lights are only on when they detect an aircraft in the area. Trenary then addressed the noise complaint that had been made regarding one of the wind turbines. Trenary and Saville both explained that the problem had been a busted gearbox. When the problem was identified and fixed, the noise stopped.

Board member Dale Nelson then brought up the fact that the complaint had been made in February. Enel made a statement in mid-March that the issue would be fixed, but the fix did not come until June. The Enel representatives apologized for this, partly blaming the previous leadership. They did take some of the blame upon themselves, promising to be more speedy with responses and easier to get a hold of. Saville made a point to say that, if he is contacted directly, he can start looking into any problems straight away.

Board member Michael DeRoss asked if Saville would be willing to allow Lincoln’s local news organizations to publish his contact information. Upon Saville’s agreement, DeRoss pointed out the Lincoln Daily News Representative present. If you need to get a hold of Enel, Saville’s phone number is [phone], and their local office address is 245 1500th Road, Mt. Pulaski.

This was the end of the public comments, and the board moved directly on to voting on motions. Davenport checked with the rest of the board and decided to vote on the two solar farm related motions first, since many of the community members were there for one of those motions.

The first motion was the one regarding the proposed solar farm in Atlanta. Nelson argued that the tax money would not be going to the people of Atlanta but would be going to neighboring communities. Davenport responded that other communities may get some of that money, but Atlanta likely does as well. She further stated that Pivot Energy has no say where that property tax money goes. Krebsbach did clarify that she was given a copy of the tax reports from that property, and Atlanta does get a portion of the taxes from that land. This means, should a solar farm be built there, Atlanta would see an increase in tax revenue.

Nelson made another point that the board should ensure everything with this project is legal and meets the state statutes. This met with some pushback, including from DeRoss, who argued that there is no point in having committees if they are not going to be trusted to know these things.

Crystal Alley then attempted to make a comment, which was loudly shut down by DeRoss. Alley and Nelson both made it known that they felt DeRoss’ response to Alley was disrespectful. DeRoss defended his action, stating that Alley had her time to speak during public comments. Davenport made a statement sharing that DeRoss was correct, as public comments were over, and Alley’s concern of the Forest Hills rezoning was not currently being discussed. Nelson continued, addressing DeRoss directly and telling him that a better way to address Alley would be to offer to speak to her for a few minutes after the meeting. DeRoss responded by telling Nelson that, while that is very kind of him (Nelson), he (De Ross) does not do that. DeRoss was addressed several more times throughout the meeting about this topic by other board members as well as audience members. While DeRoss apologized if his actions upset people, he stood by them.

Nelson ultimately made a motion to table, which failed. A final vote was then taken, upon which the motion to approve rezoning to accommodate the Atlanta area solar farm passed.

The board then moved on to discussing the rezoning of the land near Forest Hills Road. Alley spoke once more, addressing DeRoss for his “disrespect” and calling this experience “eye-opening.” Bates also spoke again, clarifying that there will be no sub-station, only a transformer. He shared that the transformer would have an underground power line that would attach to the power lines on 5th Street. Several other clarifications were made before a final vote was taken. In the closest vote of the evening, the motion passed with a vote of 6-5.

The board moved on to the twenty motions that were brought forth by the Finance Committee. Many of these were voted on with little to no discussion.

All of the following motions passed unanimously:

• Moving the Community Benefit Fund to CD’s with the exception of $100,000.

• Approving a $500 donation to C.O.P.S.

• Approving a $500 donation to the Mental Health Advisory Committee.

• Approving a $500 donation to the 2024 Lincoln Art Fair.

• Approving a $500 donation to the Lincoln FC Fields.

• Approving a $500 donation to the Lincoln Emblem Club.

• Moving all the Top Hat Wind Farm permit fees to CD’s for the Capitol Project Fund.

• Increasing the State’s Attorney office budget for fiscal year 24/25 by $36,000 for the assistant State’s Attorney position.

Several tax sale motions were passed including:

• Gene Jiang
• Kevin Hild
• PLH Enterprises Illinois
• Piggy Bank Investments Properties, LLC
• Almeida Appraisals, LTD
• Patrick Judge and Joanna Judge
• Derek Struebing
• Ultimate, LLC
• Antoine Jones
• City of Lincoln (on S College and 1st)

In between voting on the aforementioned motions, two motions were brought up that garnered a larger amount of discussion and debate than the others.

The first of these was a motion to increase the Logan County Supervisor of Assessments Office budget for fiscal year 24/25 by $7,000. One of the employees in that office retired, and they had been working 4-day work weeks. Another employee is currently being moved to this position but will be required to work 5-day work weeks. The $7,000 increase would be for this employee’s salary for the position. There was some back and forth on this motion, but ultimately, the motion passed unanimously.

The motion after this one was to increase the Logan County Board Administrative Assistant salary to $45,000. This motion proved to be more contentious. Nelson recommended sending this motion back to committee. Seeing as how the 2025 budget is still being worked out, Nelson did not feel right giving what amounted to a 9% pay increase before deciding what other departments would get. Davenport asked how this motion was different from the motion they had just passed. The other board members pointed out that, while the previous motion came out of committee, this motion was brought forward during the Workshop meeting. Board member Kathy Schmidt made a motion to send this back to committee, which was passed unanimously.

To provide a bit of context, Davenport brought this motion forward last week. Her reasoning was that the current Administrative Assistant had been handed the responsibilities of another person’s job ten months prior without any additional compensation. The board’s unanimous decision to send the motion back to committee was based on a desire to ensure the Administrative Assistant was being justly compensated, as well as making sure the motion was sent through the proper channels.

The final motion the board discussed was the third motion that came out of the Zoning and Economic Development Committee. This was a motion to allocate $10,000 from the GIS (Geographic Information System) Fund to supplement new GIS duties to the Logan County Zoning Assistant. While this motion had some back and forth, with a couple opposing it, the board largely supported it. The motion was passed by a vote of 9-2.

[Matt Boutcher]