116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Linn County Board of Supervisors to vote on new solar ordinance language
First ordinance reading is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday
CEDAR RAPIDS — The Linn County Board of Supervisors in September will take three votes to adopt new ordinance language with tighter regulations governing utility-scale solar applications as a pause on new projects nears its expiration date.
Background
In June, the three-member board extended a moratorium on accepting new applications for utility-scale solar installations through Sept. 30 — one final time since first pausing applications last October to allow for new code language to be drafted.
Any changes would not apply to previously approved projects. There were three controversial utility-grade solar installations the supervisors approved in 2022 — one near Coggon and two related projects near Palo.
The 640-acre site near Coggon is developed by Idaho-based Clenera and the Central Iowa Power Cooperative. There also is a total of more than 1,000 acres for two projects from NextEra near the decommissioned Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear plant near Palo.
In their first public discussion in May of four review committees’ recommended code changes, supervisors said they wanted to see strong language, particularly surrounding the long-term operations of solar installations.
Overall, policy changes in four areas were considered: good neighbor practices, battery energy storage systems, life cycle costs and balancing agriculture and solar.
What’s happened since?
The supervisors will take their first vote on the new ordinance at their meeting 10 a.m. Tuesday in the formal board room of the Jean Oxley Public Service Center, 935 Second St. SW in Cedar Rapids. Second and third ordinance readings are slated to be held at their 10 a.m. Sept. 13 and Sept. 20 meetings.
The county Planning and Zoning Commission voted earlier this month to advance the new code to the supervisors.
Under the proposed code, setbacks must be at least 50 feet from property lines and 300 feet from dwellings unless waived by the property owner. County Planning and Zoning Director Charlie Nichols told the commission those were the distances applied to the three previous projects.
“These setbacks … are adequate to mitigate conflicts,” Nichols said. “They are on the upper end of setbacks we see from counties around the country.”
See proposed code language
To view the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting presentation, where Nichols reviews the proposed ordinance language, visit www.linncountyiowa.gov/1705/Renewable-Energy-Review-Committees.
Additionally, under the proposed ordinance, the applicant must:
- Submit a screening plan within 1,000 feet of the project and maintain screening within those boundaries.
- Share an operation and maintenance plan with the county including a variety of reporting requirements for plans on agricultural impact mitigation, decommissioning and vegetation management.
- Provide an emergency response plan for the battery energy storage system.
- Submit a decommissioning and site restoration plan, including the estimated costs of decommissioning with a way to account for inflation and method of ensuring funds will be available covering the totality of costs — plus a contingency of 10 percent of total costs. The trigger for decommissioning is one year with no substantial action, by which point the permit holder has one year to complete the decommissioning process.
- A licensed professional engineer also must evaluate noise levels from the project that the levels can be no higher than 55 decibels during the day and 50 decibels at night.
Integrated battery energy storage systems that are part of an installation are allowed by right, but must be in a renewable energy overlay zone and must go through the zoning process with the rest of the project. A stand-alone system would require a conditional use permit. All components of the system are required to be at least 200 feet away from a property line or right of way, and 500 feet from an occupied structure.
County staff developed a score card where applicants can gain points for putting in agrivoltaic practices such as crop production and pollinator plantings around solar panels, though that’s not required in the ordinance language.
To balance agricultural production and renewable energy production, the applicant would lose points on the score card if their site is on high and medium corn suitability rating (CSR) ground. Nichols said this would incentivize using land for the solar installation that is less agriculturally productive.
The minimum panel height must be 32 inches from the lower edge of the panel at full tilt to the ground, encouraging native plant species can grow and maintaining soil health, under proposed language.
Asked if it was unfair to have this level of requirements for solar projects, Nichols said it would be a policy decision for the supervisors if they wanted to take a similar look at policy governing other uses.
“These projects are fairly unique in their scale and just the size of their impacts on land in Linn County,” Nichols said. “... The impact of the use is disproportionate to what we typically deal with at a county zoning level.”
Nichols said the two Duane Arnold projects have met all their preconstruction conditions and have started work. The Coggon project needs to obtain building/electrical permits, do a preconstruction road survey and complete some other items before starting.
Nichols said staff have not heard from the Coggon developers in awhile and “my assumption is that they are waiting for the court case on the Coggon project to be entirely resolved before they proceed.”
Neighbors had sued looking to halt both projects last year, challenging the supervisors’ rezoning decisions. A judge ruled against neighbors in both cases, but there is an appeal pending in the Coggon case. The petitioners on the Duane Arnold solar case did not file a timely appeal, so the judgment in that case is final.
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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