Palo solar meeting rescheduled after county submits public notice to The Gazette

After sending dozens of people home from a meeting about two proposed solar projects near Palo, Linn County has rescheduled the meeting for next week and guaranteed that it will happen by submitting a legal notice about it to The Gazette for publication.

Residents and representatives of solar developer NextEra who showed up at the Palo Community Center on Monday evening were prepared for a long meeting about the Duane Arnold Solar projects.

At 6:10 p.m., shortly after the meeting was scheduled to begin, the audience was told it was being canceled. The county had failed to publish a notice of the meeting, as required by law.

Supervisor Chair Ben Rogers said it wasn’t until around 5:50 p.m. on Monday that the board was informed of the “embarrassing oversight” after it was questioned by staff.

A legal notice submitted to The Gazette on Tuesday morning reports that the supervisors’ first consideration of the project will happen Monday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Palo Community Center, 2800 Hollenbeck Rd.

It is still unclear when the second and third/final considerations will take place.

State government bodies are required by law to give proper notice for public hearings in the county’s official paper of record. For Linn County and its cities, that paper is The Gazette. However, a notice of the solar project meeting was not submitted by the county to The Gazette before Tuesday morning.

The official public notice for the Monday meeting can be found on page 9B of Wednesday’s Gazette.

Public notices

Notices of elections, public hearings and other official action are required by state law. The notice must be published at least once, not less than four and no more than 20 days before the date of the election, hearing or action, according to Iowa Code.

“Public notices are extremely important,” Iowa Newspaper Association Executive Director Susan Patterson Plank said. “They are important for accessibility, meaning that people have access to them so they know the work of their government… We know that 85 percent of Iowa adults read their local newspaper in print or online.”

Public notices across the state are also available at iowanotices.org.

“Newspapers want to make sure it’s in front of as many people as possible so on that side, it’s important for newspapers to help people understand where public notices are on their sites too,” Patterson Plank added.

What will be discussed on Monday?

The discussion at the supervisors’ meeting next Monday will be the same that was supposed to be had this week.

The supervisors are set to vote on developer NextEra’s Duane Arnold Solar projects near Palo. A vote on Monday will be the first of three votes needed to rezone the area from agricultural to agricultural with a solar overlay, allowing for the project to be built.

The Duane Arnold Solar I project proposes to use 316 acres of an 857-acre area to place photovoltaic solar arrays capable of generating up to 50 megawatts of energy.

The Duane Arnold Solar II project would use 815 acres of a 1,780-acre area to place solar arrays capable of generating up to 150 MW. It would also include a 75-MW, four-hour battery energy storage facility. The battery energy storage system will have about 96 20 x 8-foot containers that will house 7,040 lithium-ion battery modules.

While NextEra will develop the project, Alliant Energy filed a proposal with the Iowa Utilities Board to buy the large-scale solar project from NextEra and further develop it into the state’s largest solar and battery storage facility, if that plan receives approval.

NextEra representatives have said they plan to have the Palo projects operational by December 2024. The estimated start of construction is the first quarter of 2023, if the projects are approved.

Last month, the Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend approval of the zoning change.

This is the second utility-scale solar project the county is considering this year. Earlier this year, the supervisors approved developer Clenera’s Coggon project in a 2-1 vote after planning and zoning commission members voted 6-1 to recommend denial.

Progress on the 640-acre solar farm near Coggon — approved by the supervisors — is on hold while a court resolves a case brought against the supervisors by a family who lives near the site.

Comments: (319) 398-8255; gage.miskimen@thegazette.com