(Clarinda) — Page County officials are putting a temporary hold on any commercial solar energy construction permits.
During its regular meeting this week, the Page County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution placing a 180-day moratorium on the siting, construction, and operation of commercial solar energy systems. Currently, the county does not have an ordinance explicitly regulating solar projects. Supervisor Jacob Holmes says the moratorium, which he had County Attorney Carl Sonksen draft, would give the county a chance to draft a solar ordinance before any projects are proposed in the county.
“If we want to make a solar ordinance, and we talked about one last year, if we want to do that this just gives us time while we build it over the next few months — we need to build one and be done with it,” said Holmes. “(Sonksen) put it all together and I just asked to him to put something together to give us time to work on an ordinance.”
Supervisor Judy Clark questioned whether or not the county needed to put a moratorium in place. While it’s not required, Holmes says the hold could reduce the chance of any confusion between the county and potential developers.
“We don’t have to, but if you don’t, my understanding is that if someone comes forward with a plan while we’re working on it, it could cause an issue there,” he said. “The second it’s done, we delete this because we don’t need it anymore. It’s just to be careful and respectful by letting everyone know what we’re doing and that we’re working on stuff.”
However, the Supervisors agreed that an ordinance needed to be developed. In related business, the board also discussed setting a timeline to update its current wind energy ordinance and draft a carbon pipeline ordinance. Supervisor Todd Maher says the wind and carbon pipelines appear to be the most pressing right now. But, with a moratorium currently on wind energy permit applications, Holmes feels that should be the first topic to tackle.
“We have got to work on our wind ordinance — repealing, replacing, or whatever, we’ve got to get that fixed,” said Holmes. “That’s the reason we’re in a moratorium for wind right now. It has lots of things that need to be worked on and safety concerns that are not being addressed, so we need to work on that.”
The board initially put a moratorium on wind energy permit applications in March of last year and extended it in August, with the current timeframe ending on March 29th. The board agreed to begin reviewing the county’s wind ordinance at its regular meeting on February 28th.
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