The wheels of government do, indeed, turn slow, as was pointed out Friday afternoon by Knox County Commission President Kellie Streeter after they opted to hit pause, yet again, on the passing of a new solar ordinance.
But for some, like local resident Mike Anson, it’s hard to see any movement at all.
“It just seems to me that you’re holding up a project when you should be cheering it on,” he said. “I think we should be cheering any company that wants to come and invest $110 million in Knox County.
“I’d think it would be, ‘What can we do to get you here?’ rather than all these rules.”
But rules, there must be, Streeter pointed out.
“We want business. We want investment,” she said. “That’s why we’re taking this on.”
The commissioners met in special session Friday afternoon to take back up discussions of a proposed solar ordinance, one that would regulate solar development in Knox County.
Two companies — Nebraska-based Tenaska and Origis Energy in Miami, Florida — are in talks with local land owners currently and have been actively participating in the drafting of the ordinance.
Tenaska is further along in the process, having already selected a location in southern Knox County and poised to invest $110 million in a solar farm there.
The process of drafting an ordinance, too, is shared with members of the Area Plan Commission as they will be the enforcers of the new zoning law.
The APC earlier this month gave the current draft their favorable recommendation, but representatives with both Tenaska and Origis have asked for changes.
Dan Farrell, a project development manager with Origis, wants to lessen the financial burden on solar companies by delaying the establishment of a decommissioning security bond — or getting rid of it altogether.
And local resident Kent Utt, who is now serving as a consultant for Tenaska, asked the county to consider allowing for a preliminary permit, of sorts, so solar companies aren’t out hundreds of thousands of dollars in engineering costs only to see the county decline an application later.
An earlier change to the solar ordinance allowed for a greater 200 feet of buffer space between the solar panels and the next-nearest structure — the original legislation said 100 feet — but Utt said Tenaska wanted to see language added that would allow the homeowner to waive that mandate.
The commissioners, however, seemed inclined to let the legislation remain as it is.
“We’ve always done things like that through a variance process,” Streeter said. “And I see no reason to change that now.
“I don’t disagree that landowners can and should have the right (to dictate something different), but we have always had a variance process that allows for this.”
Colt Michaels, the APC’s executive director, said their concern was that allowing land owners to waive buffer requirements would allow for “inconsistency” in land improvements. He argued, too, that it would be “changing the development standard itself.”
Streeter, pointing out that the APC approves most every variance request that comes its way anyway, said she still saw no reason to change what seems to be working just fine.
“I hate to see contention here,” she said. “But we see our processes as described appropriately here.”
Other concerns that have been raised — such as a staged-in permitting process — could also have been the result of miscommunication.
The ordinance, the commissioners pointed out, can be interpreted multiple ways, and they saw nothing that suggested a solar company would have to present a “fully-engineered plan” to the APC for a permit to be issued.
“Nowhere does it say we need a fully-engineered plan,” Michaels said. “As long as we have a boundary survey, an approximate location of structures, we should be able to decide whether or not the setbacks and buffer zones are met without complete engineering.”
An attorney with Barnes and Thornburg — who attended the special meeting by phone — agreed, saying the ordinance focuses on “location,” not specific engineering details.
It’s a point of confusion that can likely be cleared up with a simple memo sent out to the solar companies looking to build here, suggested county attorney Andrew Porter.
“So that they understand,” he said, “so that their concerns are alleviated.”
And Utt agreed.
“I think as long as they understand exactly what they need to do, that will work,” he said.
As for the decommissioning standards, the commissioners seemed inclined to leave the language in.
There was argument made by Origis early on that, perhaps, a decommissioning bond — money that would be paid out in the event that the company abandoned a solar farm and the land needed to be cleaned up — wasn’t even necessary; the value of the land and the equipment, Farrell argued, would more than cover the cost of decommissioning.
The commissioners, however, weren’t buying it.
“The more I think about that, the more I don’t directly agree,” she said. “We put roads, all sorts of things under bond.
“So I just don’t think that’s an argument that warrants a change in our ordinance.”
Commissioner Trent Hinkle agreed.
“It’s part of our job, in my mind, as commissioners to protect the land owners, the residents as best we can for as far as we can into the future.”
But despite deciding not to make those proposed changes to the ordinance, one change is still possible as the commissioners realized there, perhaps, wasn’t language that would protect the county from environmental hazards. Other such solar ordinances, Hinkle suggested, require companies check the soil for traces of metal every five years.
Barnes and Thornburg agreed and said, in other cases, it’s every eight years.
“There could be things in the soil that we don’t want there, that need to be cleaned up,” Hinkle said. “So I think it might be necessary to include a section that says, after a certain number of years, we start requiring tests.”
But the commissioners made no official decision on the ordinance — whether to approve or amend it — but will meet again to continue discussions at 10 a.m. on Tuesday in the commissioners room of the Knox County Courthouse.
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