Solar farm regulations advance to Douglas County Commission, bringing possible large-scale farm closer to reality

photo by: City of Lawrence

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve a text amendment setting standards for solar farms, which will next be forwarded along to the Douglas County Commission for their consideration.

The possibility of a large-scale solar energy farm coming to Douglas County is a step closer to coming to fruition.

Following hours of discussion and spot-check editing Wednesday night, the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve a text amendment setting standards for commercial or utility-scale “solar energy conversion systems,” or solar farms. It’ll next be forwarded along to the Douglas County Commission for its consideration.

The regulations would allow for up to a 1,000-acre solar farm to be constructed in the county, and they also spell out details such as how far the solar panels and other devices must be set back from roads, houses, and other structures.

Some public commenters at the planning commission’s meeting voiced gratitude that their concerns about responsible solar energy had been heard during the review process of the past few months.

Others, however, were more critical, with one claiming the 1,000-acre cap on the maximum size of a solar panel system should be scaled back by at least half. Another voiced concern about the limited lifespan of solar panel equipment.

Some were also worried that the effects on rural residents hadn’t been considered enough, including concerns that setback regulations potentially would allow solar farms to be too close to their homes — the draft regulations say panel arrays and structures should be at least 500 feet away from any existing residence — or because a large-scale operation could displace farmers.

“We, as a whole commission, have heard literally hours of public comment,” board chair Luke Sinclair said after the comment period. “We’ve received dozens, if not hundreds, of pages of written comment. We ourselves, as a commission, have engaged in hours of what I’d consider to be thoughtful, free-ranging discussion about the regulations. I think it may be naive to assume that everyone will feel their concerns have been adequately addressed in these (regulations), but it seems to me that maybe we’re at a point where we ought to at least consider advancing these to the board of county commissioners with a recommendation one way or the other.”

Passing the text amendment draft along to the County Commission comes after months of the planning commission building these new regulations from the ground up, and more recently tasking an ad hoc committee with revising the draft regulations.

County officials have been developing the regulations after Florida-based energy company NextEra Energy expressed interest in developing a 3,000-acre solar panel farm that straddles the border of Douglas and Johnson counties. The project basically would be east and north of Baldwin City. The company hasn’t filed any formal plans for that project as regulations are still in the works.

County Administrator Sarah Plinsky’s weekly report to county commissioners at their own Wednesday meeting noted a possible March 2 work session providing an overview of the text amendment. Plinsky told the Journal-World Thursday that work session will remain tentative until the agenda is set Friday afternoon.

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