|
Logan County Board
September Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting
[September 12, 2025]
On Wednesday, September 10th,
the Zoning and Economic Development committee of the larger Logan
County Board met for their monthly meeting. This meeting took place
in the Blue Room in the basement of the Logan County Safety Complex.
All five members of the committee were present. This included
Chairman Michael DeRoss, Vice Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Joseph Kuhlman, and Bob Sanders. Also in attendance was
Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al Green.
The meeting started with two people from REV Renewables, Nelson
Moleiro and Jill Collins, presenting on and answering questions
about the New Sugar Creek Solar project that is currently working
its way through the county board. To read more about this project
and what was discussed, please read LDN’s other article on this
meeting.
After the presentation, DeRoss moved the committee onto new
business, as there was no old business. There were five items in new
business, starting with the idea of restructuring the fees that
companies have to pay for permits when building new energy projects
in the county. This is an item this committee has been discussing
for a couple of months.
Green gave some background on this matter, explaining the way the
fee schedule works now. As it stands now, companies have to pay
permits for solar farms based on the physical size of their project.
Wind farms are similar, with each turbine requiring a fee based on
its height. According to Green, with wind turbines, new technology
is being created that makes the turbines shorter while still
outputting the same amount of energy or more. Since this is the
case, Logan County is losing out on permit money when this occurs.
In the case of the Pike Creek wind farm, they are actually
installing smaller turbines than their initial proposal stated they
would. While they agreed to pay the initial permit fee amount
anyway, Green stated this could have cost the county $88,000.
Green’s suggestion to solve this problem would be to charge by the
estimated energy output. He brought up the idea of charging $4,000
per megawatt for both wind and solar projects. Sanders mentioned
that he thought they should increase the fee amount to the highest
possible amount without driving companies away. DeRoss stated that
he wanted to move on this tonight but wanted something very clear to
bring before the board on Thursday’s Workshop meeting. The committee
then went through the current fee schedule line by line, changing
what they needed in order to match the new planned fee schedule.
After all discussion on the matter was had, a motion was made to
send the updated fee schedule to the Workshop meeting.
The next item on the agenda the
committee discussed was possible fines and sanctions against people
breaking the zoning ordinance. Green stated that the county is not
yet ready to start charging people. He gave an example about the
Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS) that is required to be
installed on all wind turbines in the country. This system lights up
the wind turbines with flashing red lights only when it detects an
aircraft in the area. According to Logan County’s ordinance, this
system is required to be installed but says nothing about it being
operational. Some residents who live near these wind turbines state
that since the system is not working, the turbines simply flash red
at all times, with some people having problems with the bright red
lights flashing in their windows at night.
Green stated that putting all of the possible violations into a list
would be challenging. DeRoss stated some concern with making an
extensive list. He stated that if hundreds of possible violations
were listed, one was missed, and then they went back and added it,
would they be in “good standing” to add that violation.
[to top of second column] |
It was asked how the
violations would be issued, and Green stated that it would be by
permit. He also stated that he has been issuing individual
permits for wind turbines, making it so that wind violations
could be charged per turbine that violated the ordinance. The
committee was very happy to hear this.
Green stated that he would like help coming up with a list, as
he is sure there would be violations he would not think of.
DeRoss asked Green to share the ideas he has now with the
committee, and then they can communicate in an email chain to
brainstorm new ideas.
The next item on the agenda was in
relation to Pivot Energy. They have a complaint resolution plan that
needs to go before the board but elected to hold off on bringing it
last month due to the fact that they would not be able to be in
attendance to any of the board meetings. Green stated that he would
share their resolution with the committee members again via email
before the Workshop meeting.
DeRoss then brought up the idea of publishing something to the
community in relation to wind and solar projects. He stated that the
idea would be to inform the public “on what’s going on with wind
farms, what the law is with wind farms, what they can do about wind
farms, who they should call when they have a complaint about X with
wind farms, and then extrapolate all that to solar farms.” DeRoss
stated that he sees a lot of people on social media with a lot of
strong opinions about these energy projects and what the county
board is doing. DeRoss stated that his goal is to try to help inform
the community on these projects and have a better understanding.
Next was Green’s Zoning and Economic Development Officer report.
Green stated that there were sixteen permits of various types issued
last month. He also mentioned the new Taco Bell that is being built
on the corner of Woodlawn and Old Route 66. The conditions for the
Pike Creek energy project are being met, and they are looking at
starting construction for their Operations and Maintenance (O&M)
building next month. Green also stated that he is still working on
how to get the new ground mount solar ordinance on the county
website.
There was one more brief item that was missed, that being the Sugar
Creek Solar Site approval. The item was moved to the Workshop
meeting with no discussion on the matter.
The last item discussed was the possibility of replacing Keenan
Leesman with Kevin Knauer as the Planning Commission board
representative. It was stated that Leesman has not been able to make
it to many of the meetings. After this idea was mentioned and
discussed, the committee voted to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher]
[Text received from file]
 |
