Linn County supervisors reject solar moratorium

CEDAR RAPIDS — Linn County supervisors on Wednesday rejected a proposed 18-month moratorium on utility-scale solar projects, clearing the way for a proposed $800 million project near the Duane Arnold nuclear plant to make an application.

Supervisor Louie Zumbach, a Republican, who proposed and voted for the moratorium, with Democratic Supervisors Ben Rogers and Stacey Walker opposed.

The 2-1 vote followed about two hours of public comment — with most speakers opposing the moratorium — and after months of meetings about the solar farm NextEra Energy is proposing to build in Palo near the Duane Arnold Energy Center it owns and is decommissioning.

The price tag includes $50 million NextEra says it intends to pay landowners over the project’s 30-year life span.

In order to become a reality, the solar farm proposal must be approved by both the Linn County supervisors and the Iowa Utilities Board. As of Wednesday, NextEra had not yet filed an application detailing the project.

The proposed 18-month county moratorium would have delayed the permitting process for the project, but the time would have been used to examine and update the county’s utility-scale solar ordinance.

“I’m not against solar,” Zumbach said in explaining why he voted for the moratorium. “I have it on my own farm, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

“But there are things that weren’t thought of (in the county ordinance), and I think the changes are pretty basic,” he said. “(The moratorium) would make sure things are in the ordinance so we have it squared away ahead of time.”

A moratorium, he said, wouldn’t necessarily have lasted 18 months if work on changing the ordinance was done faster than that.

Flexible ordinance

Linn County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said the current ordinance allows the county to be flexible and approach any application with feedback for changes.

“If we think they haven’t given us enough info or don’t have enough protections in place, then it would be up to the board to deny that application and change any shortcoming discovered,” Nichols said.

Walker said it’s impossible to anticipate every nuance ahead of an application being filed.

“That is why we already have this process, designed in a way where if things arise after intense scrutiny by subject matter experts, we are able to make those decisions in time,” Walker said.

“They (applicants) have to meet strict standards already,” he said. “We don’t even have an application before us. We need to see what’s before us and identify problems if they exist and address them as such.”

Nichols said the current ordinance allows for preliminary meetings between an applicants and county planning and development staff as well as meetings with other county boards and committees. County supervisors, he said, can vote to apply conditions for approval at any time during the application process.

Supervisors decide

In 2013, when the ordinance was adopted, a decision on any large-scale solar project would have been made by the county’s Board of Adjustment, made up of nonelected individuals, and could have been decided during one meeting, Supervisor Rogers said.

The ordinance since has been amended twice, he said, to give county supervisors the final say on projects after a series of public meetings.

“I think we have the tools and flexibility in place now,” Rogers said. “So I’m not supporting a moratorium as presented.”

Local labor

The majority of the speakers at Wednesday’s meeting, while against a moratorium, spoke in favor of using local labor on any utility-scale solar projects. Other speakers said they thought the county ordinance was strict enough.

At previous public meetings on the NextEra proposal, most speakers voiced opposition to such projects.

“Solar is going to become the future of energy production,” Cedar Rapids resident Mike Sadler said Wednesday. “I view this as a positive economic impact for the community. It’s a $700 million construction project and if NextEra doesn’t build it here, it will be built somewhere else.”

CR Sunrise Movement co-founder Jason Snell said it’s important to take steps toward renewable energy sooner rather than later.

“We have about until 2030 to switch to clean energy,” Snell said. “Each year is important. I think some issues with this project are valid, but banning all solar would be overkill.”

Doug Neumann, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, said a moratorium could have had an economic impact larger than any single project.

“A lot of manufacturers, processors and producers have sustainability programs now,” he said.

“It can come across as hyperbole when you say large businesses would move out (if there were a moratorium), but I also don’t want to understate that point,” Neumann said. “When companies consider expansion, they do look at community’s sustainability goals. An increasingly important question is asking about how much of our energy portfolio is coming from renewables.”

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