Want clarification on one point of solar ordinance
~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
The Greene County supervisors held a public hearing on the recodified Code of Ordinances at their Oct. 3 meeting, but closed the hearing without being ready to hold a first reading of the recodified Code. Instead, they asked county attorney Thomas Laehn to clean up language in the ordinance dealing with utility-scale solar power projects and scheduled a new public hearing for the Oct. 10 meeting.
There has been little discussion of the recodification in its entirety, but the new ordinance dealing with solar energy had been discussed for several hours over the course of the last few months. National Grid Renewables, a Minnesota-based company that hopes to build an 1,100-acre, 100 megawatt solar array with a 50 megawatt battery storage unit near Grand Junction, has been actively involved in discussion of the solar energy ordinance.
Monday’s public hearing was challenged before board chair John Muir opened it. Grand Junction resident Howard Holz suggested during the open forum that the hearing be delayed due to the absence of supervisor Mick Burkett. Holz noted that with supervisor Peter Bardole abstaining from votes dealing with the solar project because he owns property in the area planned for the NGR project, and Burkett’s absence, only three supervisors would be making a decision.
“We’re rushing into this without Mick,” Holz said.
“We haven’t rushed. We’re meeting guidelines of the State in protecting ag land,” Muir answered. He added that the full board has all the information about the proposed changes to the Code of Ordinances and the solar energy ordinances.
County attorney Laehn announced to the public the solar energy parts of the zoning ordinance were not “dictated by National Grid Renewables or other companies.”
Laehn said information given the board by “all interested parties” and legal advice given the supervisors from his office provided the information the supervisors needed to write the new utility-level solar ordinances.
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph said, “We’ve taken information from other sources, other companies.”
Laehn explained prior to the public hearing the difference between substantive changes in the wording of the ordinances and non-substantive changes.
“Non-substantive changes would be in spelling, grammar, formatting,” he said. “Substantive changes would be in the wording.”
Laehn said the work was done carefully because “we don’t want any question about the validity of (the new code of) ordinances.”
He said he had no legal concerns about the proposed ordinances.
“We did these in-house and saved thousands of dollars,” he said.
While expressing appreciation for Holz’s suggestions, Muir opened the public hearing to take comments from the public regarding the recodified Greene County Code of Ordinances.
County resident Mary Ellen Holz spoke about language in sections 16.4, 16.5, and 16.6 in the utility-scale solar energy systems part of the zoning ordinances.
Holz identified a loophole in the sections and challenged it as not meeting the original intent of the board as stated on Aug. 29.
“NGR has a site plan and has purchased land outside of the site plan,” Holz alleged. “Using section 16.6, NGR can continue to grow their base (beyond the cap of 1,000 acres) by getting additional conditional permits.”
Holz explained this would make the “two-mile distances between solar projects” as required in another part of the ordinance meaningless.
Howard Holz, her husband, alleged, “This change (in wording from Aug. 29) was made by the NGR lawyers, not Thomas (Laehn) or the board.”
“We haven’t had enough time to understand the changes,” Howard Holz said. “The two-mile distance between solar projects, there’s no wording that protects it.”
Mary Ellen Holz added, “The way the ordinance is written today (in the current draft under discussion) is not (this board’s) intention.”
Howard Holz said section 16.6 was not in the Aug.29 draft.
Howard Holz said, “The wording needs to be cleaned up (to protect the two-mile distance between solar farms.)”
Additionally, the use of conditional permits appeared to be unclear.
After consideration, chair Muir agreed. “There’s a genuine need for us to reword this.”
Laehn agreed.
National Grid Renewables attorney Kristy Rogers attended the meeting by Zoom. NGR representative Tom Karas was present at the meeting and NGR representative Marta Lasch attended by Zoom.
Rogers and Laehn discussed possible wording of the ordinance sections under scrutiny. Karas and Rogers stated they did understand the issue of concern.
Laehn commented the zoning board can always grant variances.
Muir thanked participants in the public hearing. “You helped us clear up our intent,” he said.
Laehn said he would redraft section 16.6 and “share with anyone interested.” He said the new draft of the solar energy section discussed would be ready by Oct. 5, and that there should be another public hearing.
After closing this public hearing, the board set another public hearing for public comments and review of the re-codified Greene County Code of Ordinances for Oct. 10 at 9 am.
County auditor Jane Heun told the board the first reading of the proposed Code of Ordinances would then be after the Oct. 10 public hearing.
In other business, John Wells, representative of NEW Cooperative, told the board by Zoom the Iowa Department of Land Stewardship has given permission to proceed on NEW’s application to put a 45,000 gallon anhydrous ammonia tank on a site east of Churdan.
Wells said formal approval from the board of supervisors is the next step.
Wells said NEW has received no letters of concern about the project. He said the initial idea was for two tanks, but NEW would like to proceed with just one tank at this time.
The board gave unanimous approval, with Burkett absent, for the placement of one 45,000 gallon anhydrous ammonia tank on the NEW Cooperative site east of Churdan.
The board also approved a resolution for the transfer of $55,729 from the General fund, $615,807 from the Rural fund, and $162,500 from the LOSST (Local Option Sales and Services Tax) fund to the Secondary Roads fund to occur after the September tax collections.
The board approved the hire of Robert Newby as a full-time jailer for the sheriff’s office at a yearly salary of $38,000. This is effective Oct. 24. When Newby completes certification, he will receive a $1000 per year pay increase.
The board commended Jay Tasler for 28 years of service in maintaining the county’s secondary road system. Tasler is retiring.
