A company proposing a solar panel project in Greene County was recently denied a permit to do so.
Greene County Zoning Administrator Chuck Wenthold said the County Board of Adjustment voted 4-1 to deny the conditional use permit for Grand Junction Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of NationalGrid Renewables, to build a 100-megawatt solar panel farm near Grand Junction. Last Thursday’s meeting went over five hours and over 19 people attended.
Board of Adjustment Chair Mike Holden spoke to the Greene County Board of Supervisors at their regular meeting this past Monday and said the vote to deny was due to items that were missing under the county ordinance for an emergency response plan. He mentioned one of NationalGrid Renewables reasons for why they had some missing elements.
“One of the reasons they can’t give a finalized (emergency) response plan is they don’t know the exact equipment and the exact outlay of the project. They won’t know until then (when construction starts) of where those shut-offs are.”
Supervisor Chair John Muir was also at the meeting and he addressed the issue of the proposed project that included 1,103 acres, when the county ordinance capped at 1,000 acres per project.
“And they aren’t using the full 1,100 acres. They have leases on more acres than they require. Their whole project was designed around 100-megawatts. We all think in terms of acres, they don’t, they think in terms of how much land do we have to use to get enough to have 100-megawatts.”
County Attorney Thomas Laehn said there are two avenues NationalGrid Renewables can take. They can re-submit their permit application to the county again and address the concerns that the Board of Adjustment made. However, since the company already obtained a state permit from the Iowa Utilities Board, the IUB could deny NationalGrid Renewables another opportunity and then the company could appeal the Board of Adjustment’s decision to district court.
IUB Director of Communications Don Tormey said in an email that the company has two years from when the IUB issued its certificate on April 21st to complete the project and if the project isn’t done by then, the company would be required to submit a new petition to the IUB. Tormey further stated that under Iowa law, the IUB can act expeditiously to issue certificates and attach any conditions it wants. This certificate was issued to Grand Junction Solar on the condition that all local permits were also obtained.
Raccoon Valley Radio reached out to NationalGrid Renewables for comment and they did not respond in time of when this story was published.
The five people that serve on the Greene County Board of Adjustment includes Holden, along with Dan Tronchetti, Angie Jewett, Wade Sohm, and Cale Juergensen. Click the link below to see the documents filed with the IUB.