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Kansas Ag News Headlines |
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Temporary Ban on New Commercial Solar in Sedgwick County Extended
Kansas Ag Connection - 03/07/2024
The Sedgwick County Commission extended a temporary ban on new commercial solar farms Wednesday, instead of voting on new regulations for the energy source.
The county first imposed a six-month ban on the energy projects last September. The moratorium was meant to allow the commission to revise its rules for commercial solar farms because the energy source is becoming more common: a 103-megawatt farm called the Chisholm Trail Solar Energy Center was recently proposed between Colwich and Maize.
The initial ban was set to end March 20. In the past six months, a subcommittee of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) met at least nine times to craft a revised set of regulations, which it brought to the commission for approval Wednesday.
The new regulations were slightly more stringent than a set previously adopted in 2019 – adding groundwater testing requirements and a smaller height limit.
But the commissioners did not vote on them, instead extending the moratorium for six more months. The commission also voted to seek out a professional consulting firm that could research, review and potentially add regulations to govern solar farms.
"I’m afraid that there might be best practices or regulations that are commonly implemented that we have not had an opportunity to consider or thoroughly vetted for Sedgwick County,” said Commissioner David Dennis.
Several commissioners said they felt they had questions that were not answered or addressed in the proposed regulations.
“I feel like I have a lot of conflicting information that I have to sort through personally,” said Commissioner Jim Howell. “For example, I don’t think we’ve heard a fiscal analysis of this. … How does this impact Sedgwick County fiscally?”
Another issue that many neighbors have raised is the desire to restrict solar farms from being developed near small cities like Maize and Colwich. The regulations proposed Wednesday didn’t address this.
Solar developers said doing so could limit development of solar farms because they need to be built near substations, most of which are near cities.
The moratorium is now set to end Sept. 13, though commissioners said they could bring it to a close earlier if they wished.
The decision to extend the ban frustrated Invenergy, the company developing a solar farm in west Sedgwick County.
“Today’s actions by the Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners replicates earlier efforts and essentially ignores the research, community feedback and recommendations of these groups, further delaying the positive economic impacts solar projects will bring to local landowners and communities,” the company wrote in a statement to KMUW.
Jennifer Connelly is a solar advocate and member of the local Sierra Club. She said she attended eight to 10 county or planning meetings in the past six months to support solar. She wanted the county to approve the regulations the planning commission had already passed.
Click here to read more kmuw.org
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