CLARK COUNTY — The Clark County Commissioners have approved an amendment to the unified development ordinance pertaining to solar farms.
At the Clark County Plan Commission meeting in April, they unanimously approved an amended UDO that was then sent to the commissioners for approval.
At the commissioners meeting on Thursday, about 16 people spoke for and against the commissioners approving these UDO amendments.
One of the more controversial sections of the UDO was increasing the setbacks from 250 to 650 feet from a non-participating residential dwelling to the solar farm property.
Residents have been against a proposed solar farm project called the Flag Run Solar Project that is being put together by the company BrightNight, which has signed leases with area landowners and farmers to install the panels. Some who live adjacent to the development feel a 250-foot setback is not far enough.
Before voting, commissioners discussed possibly sending back these amendments to the plan commission to amend again.
However, commissioners Bryan Glover and Connie Sellers were concerned that if they sent these amendments back to the plan commission, it would then delay the passing of the other sections of the amendment that included regulations on fencing, emergency planning, sound and vibrations, and the decommission plan.
Even if they do have concerns about the current setback footage, Glover and Sellers felt it would not be prudent to move without approving the text amendments since the current UDO has less strict regulations on industrial solar farms.
Sellers said while she does not have any strong objections to BriteNight, she is concerned about other solar companies bypassing the county and going directly to landowners for them to sign leases with the less strict solar UDO guidelines in place.
Jack Coffman brought forward a motion to send back the amendments to the plan commission to possibly look into again possibly rewriting the setbacks from 650 feet back to 250 feet. There was no second motion, so it died.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the setbacks either ... but I don’t know what other companies are doing,” Sellers said.
Glover then moved to approve the UDO text amendments as they are. The amendments passed 2-1, with Coffman voting against it.
As was discussed during the meeting, the UDO has been described as a “living document” that can be changed if need be in the future. Sellers said she wanted to go ahead and approve the amendments and then get together soon to discuss their concerns.
Glover said he understands that this subject has been “contentious,” and that he does believe landowners ought to be able to do what they want with their land under the law. He said specific issues that residents have that are adjacent to the potential solar farms can be worked out and compromised.
He said there ought to be more discussion, and that these things should be processed slowly and methodically.
“We can reach a compromise that both sides of this community can somewhat find palatable,” he said.
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