photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several residents of Douglas County attended the County Commission meeting on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 to give public comment on two plans related to the Kansas Sky Energy Center project.

Douglas County commissioners approved two significant plans for a 8 million-square-foot solar project on Wednesday after hearing more than two hours of comments from members of the public, many of whom urged them to delay the votes.

The commissioners unanimously voted to approve the two plans – a stormwater management plan and an agrivoltaics plan – for the Kansas Sky Energy Center, a solar farm project proposed for the Midland Junction area north of North Lawrence. These are some of the last items left for county commissioners to approve before the project can proceed.

Dozens of people gathered in the Douglas County Public Works training room for the meeting, and many addressed concerns with how the implementation of those plans might impact prime farmland and stormwater infrastructure. There were also some supporters of the project who said it would reduce carbon emissions and enhance pollinator habitats.

A frequent concern from the commenters was that there hadn’t been enough time for the public to review the plans. There were also concerns about these plans being voted on before the two newly elected county commissioners have been seated. Those commissioners, Gene Dorsey and Erica Anderson, are set to take office in January.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners pictured at their business meeting on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.

Ted Boyle, president of the North Lawrence Improvement Association, said that he and many other residents of North Lawrence have lived through many floods and remain concerned about the flooding that may result from the project even with the stormwater plan.

And Michael Almon, the owner of Paradigm Design, said agrivoltaics raises questions about costs, worker safety and liability, among other things, and that it needed to be further researched before being widely used in the solar industry.

Commissioner Shannon Reid said she felt the sense of loss and fear that some community members have about these decisions. She said that with all change comes uncertainty, and that while there is fear, there’s also excitement about what might come from a successful agrivoltaics plan.

Director of Zoning and Codes Tonya Voigt said that the agrivoltaics plan would be coming before the County Commission multiple times to establish new goals and make sure conditions of the plan are met. There will be reviews of the site to assess what’s happening on the ground, and the commission will hear about any challenges that may have surfaced, Voigt said; the first review would be done 12 to 24 months after construction was finished, and additional five-year reviews would follow during the life of the conditional use permit.

That gives the commission a chance to revisit the issue and adjust as they go, said Commissioner Patrick Kelly.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Former County Commissioner Nancy Thellman spoke during public comment at the Douglas County commissioner’s business meeting on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.

“I think what we have to do is continue to work together, collaborate, cooperate and see if we can get better on this plan together,” Kelly said.

Prior to the meeting, at least three organizations had asked the commissioners to voluntarily delay their vote on the stormwater and agrivoltaics plans: Grant Township, the Douglas County Food Policy Council and the Douglas County Kaw Drainage District.

As the Journal-World reported, residents and businesses also asked Douglas County District Court for a temporary restraining order that would prevent the commission from voting on the plans at Wednesday’s meeting. But at a court hearing on Tuesday afternoon, District Court Judge James McCabria decided to not grant the restraining order. He did order that construction on the project not be allowed to move forward until after the next hearing, a status conference that’s scheduled for Jan. 10.

The filing seeking the restraining order said that Kelly originally proposed delaying the vote by 30 days to give the township time to secure engineering reviews of the two plans. During Wednesday’s meeting, however, Kelly said he’d read the filing, and that that statement was inaccurate. He said he was not proposing a delay of 30 days, but simply asked whether 30 days would be enough time for the township to secure the engineering reviews. The township did not respond to his question, he said.

“I’m saying I’m disappointed,” Kelly said. “There may have been an opportunity there to say, ‘yes, 30 days would be helpful,’ and then I could have said ‘well, let me think about that.’ … I would have to come to my colleagues and make a case for an additional extension.”

In other business, commissioners:

• Authorized an additional $36,000 of ongoing funding for Artists Helping the Homeless to help turn a part-time peer outreach position into a full-time position.

In the county’s 2025 budget, it had already allocated $412,686 for Artists Helping the Homeless – $376,686 for the operations of the nonprofit’s two supportive housing projects, and $36,000 for the part-time peer outreach position. Previously, the County Commission assumed this position would start out part-time and the commission could later evaluate whether it was needed full-time.

The full-time peer outreach position will be part of the Homeless Response Team, and according to the memo, some of the position’s duties include building relationships with unsheltered homeless people and helping them connect with housing opportunities and other services. The additional funding will come from the county’s substance use disorder treatment budget for 2025.

• Approved the 2025 Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant Program – which supports community-led heritage conservation projects – along with its guidelines, application and review rubric. According to a memo in the agenda, up to $210,000 is available for grant awards in 2025. This funding has been allocated by county commissioners as a part of the county’s annual budget process.

• Approved a contract with George Butler Associates Inc. for engineering services on two bridge repair projects at a cost not to exceed $58,527. The bridges are located on the Wakarusa River – the first bridge is on North 1400 Road west of Eudora, and the second is on East 2200 Road north of Eudora. According to a memo in the agenda, some of the anticipated work will include abutment repair, girder painting, bridge joint replacement, deck patching, approach slab replacement and guardrail replacement.