photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County Commissioners approved a renewal for a temporary business use permit for a solar meteorological measurement device on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

County leaders renewed a three-year permit on Wednesday for a device that measures meteorological conditions in southern Douglas County in connection with a proposed solar farm project.

During its meeting on Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission approved the renewal of the temporary business use permit for the solar measurement device. The permit is for an area “generally described as being northwest of the intersection of N. 600 Road and E. 2400 Road,” according to the meeting agenda materials.

The commission didn’t discuss the solar farm project itself, which is called the West Gardner Solar project and is being proposed by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources. As the Journal-World has reported, if the solar farm were developed, it could cover as much as 1,000 acres in southeastern Douglas County and would also extend into part of southwestern Johnson County.

Discussion about the project has been ongoing for several years, and a timeline in summer 2023 had estimated that construction could start in mid-to-late 2025, with commercial operation expected to begin in 2026. County Administrator Sarah Plinsky told the Journal-World on Wednesday that there were no updates to share regarding the West Gardner Solar project or its timeline.

In June of last year, county commissioners approved several temporary building use permits for other kinds of testing related to the proposed solar farm. At that time, dozens of Douglas County residents attended the meeting to express both support and opposition for the project.

The solar meteorological device itself occupies an area of about 20 by 20 feet and monitors site-specific solar irradiance, wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and atmospheric pressure. According to staff observations, the device does not produce light or sound.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Heard a presentation about a flexible housing pool from the county administration. The 2025 budget that was approved last week included ongoing funding of $600,000 to provide services for supportive housing and Douglas County’s strategic plan to end chronic homelessness, A Place for Everyone.

The memo’s presentation indicates that this funding must be sustainable over several years, rather than being a one-time allocation. Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur outlined the key components of flexible housing pools, which encompass rental subsidies, case management and tenancy support services, as well as flexible resources and dedicated staff to secure housing units, among other essential services.

“One of the things we’ve talked about for a long time with A Place for Everyone is having choices and building out more choices for people,” Jolicoeur said. “I think this program offers another choice for folks to be able to exit homelessness or exit whatever situation they’re in.”

Gene Dorsey, a candidate for the newly created District 4 seat on the County Commission, came up during public comment to address a concern he had with the use of these funds from the behavioral sales tax. He referred to a chart included with the meeting agenda materials that summarized the supportive housing needs by population groups.

“The two biggest columns on the chart are individuals aged 65 plus in nursing homes and then (intellectually and developmentally disabled) individuals in institutional settings,” Dorsey said. “The mental health and the substance abuse bars are smaller than almost all of the rest of them … but about half the needs are not related to mental health or behavioral health issues and shouldn’t be charged against the mental health sales tax. They should go against the general fund budget, in my opinion.”

• Approved a text amendment dealing with new regulations for personal and commercial wind energy systems.