photo by: Adobe Stock

Aerial drone view of solar panels at a solar energy generation farm at Sunset in South Wales, UK

Douglas County officials and opponents of a proposed solar farm are feuding over everything from digging to documents in a lawsuit that continues to drag on in Douglas County District Court.

On Monday, both parties learned those disputes mean a trial in the lawsuit won’t start until after Thanksgiving 2026, at the earliest.

As has been the case since the lawsuit was filed in May 2024, neighbors — led by Grant Township — who are opposed to a plan to build a massive solar farm on Kaw Valley farmland north of North Lawrence, are asking a Douglas County District Court judge to stop the project.

The case, however, has not yet gotten close to actually getting to the trial stage. And it won’t for several more months.

On Monday, Douglas County District Court Judge James McCabria ruled that Douglas County — which is the defendant in the suit due to the fact the County Commission approved the permit for the solar farm — must do a more expansive search of its database for documents that the defense could use at trial.

Attorneys for the county had argued that requests for documents that were produced after June 1, 2024 were not relevant to the case, since the County Commission had approved the permit for the solar project in May 2024. McCabria, though, disagreed, saying that it was conceivable some later communications between county officials and others involved with the project could be relevant in the case.

Monday’s ruling means that the county has about 18 additional months worth of documents to now review. Given that, the county was given more time to search for those documents, and the defense was given more time to review any new documents that are provided. As a result, a new trial date was set for Nov. 30, which is about seven months later than an April trial date that has been previously set.

At stake, once the case gets to the trial stage, is the fate of one of the larger solar projects proposed for Kansas. The Kansas Sky Energy Center is a 600-acre project that would install enough solar panels in northern Douglas County to power 30,000 homes. The project — which would be built on farm fields near the Midland Junction grain elevators — has drawn both local supporters and opponents.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Midland Junction grain elevators north of North Lawrence are shown in this December 2024 file photo. The area near the Midland Junction area is proposed for a large, industrial solar farm project.

Supporters have cheered the amount of green energy the solar project would produce, but opponents have expressed concerns ranging from the loss of prime farmland to concerns that the solar panels — about 8 million square feet in total — would create major stormwater flooding issues for neighbors and for North Lawrence, which is downstream of the site.

The lawsuit, in part, focuses on whether Douglas County commissioners ignored key stormwater requirements when approving the project.

Monday’s hearing might have implications beyond a trial start date. The $234 million solar farm project — which ultimately will be owned and operated by Evergy — plans to use lucrative federal tax credits as part of its financing.

But as the Journal-World reported in September, the Trump Administration has said projects need to be “substantially under construction” by July 6, 2026 in order to qualify for those tax credits. Even when the trial was set to begin in April, there were questions of whether the project could be substantially under construction by July 6.

Now that the trial date is Nov. 30, the project assuredly won’t be under construction by the July 6 date, as McCabria has ruled the lawsuit must be resolved before construction can begin. However, when the Journal-World first reported on the issue in September, a spokeswoman with Evergy said the company was “confident” the project would meet the requirements for the tax credits without providing further details. The issue of the later trial date creating a problem for the project also wasn’t raised during Monday’s hearing.

The project did get one green light on Monday. McCabria said that engineering crews could begin testing work on the proposed site. That testing work will involve digging 10-feet deep pits, and driving of steel pilings into the ground, among other activities.

Attorneys for the defendants — Lawrence-based attorneys Bill Skepnek, Brennan Fagan, and Quentin Templeton — had argued that testing work should not be allowed because it would violate a temporary injunction in the case aimed at preserving the status quo of the site until the lawsuit has been resolved.

However, on Monday, McCabria said the intent of the injunction was that no irreparable harm be done to the site prior to resolution of the lawsuit. McCabria said the testing activity would be temporary, and that the land would be restored to its current condition after testing was complete. For example, the test pits would be filled and the steel pilings would be removed.

Given that, the judge said the testing work could begin on the site.