Dec. 21—OREGON — The Ogle County Board voted 13-11 Tuesday to approve a special-use permit for a solar energy project in Haldane, between Forreston and Polo, following a lawsuit filed by the petitioner.
The company, Cenergy Power, previously applied for a permit for a 5-megawatt community solar project in Lincoln Township on agricultural land, a request that was unanimously denied by the board in April due to the land’s high Land Evaluation and Site Assessment score. use in agriculture.
LESA is a land evaluation method that uses a grading system to assess the agricultural value of an area of land, taking into account the quality of the soil and other factors such as location and surrounding land use. The board adopted a resolution in March declaring its intent to support high-quality agricultural land.
After the permit denial in April, Cenergy Power reduced the size of the site plan to avoid the higher quality lands on the southeast corner of the property and resubmitted it.
The company also filed a lawsuit against the county for improper denial based on an Illinois law enacted in January 2023 that requires counties and municipalities to adopt statewide standards for utility-scale solar and wind energy facilities. The lawsuit was temporarily stayed after the county agreed to reconsider the petition.
“The land on this property is very productive, and even though they have minimized the impact of the land, it is still very high quality land,” said board member Ben Youman.
“It’s all good land in there, and I’m having a hell of a time bending over to them just to take good land,” said board member Lyle Hopkins. “The county council voted to support and preserve agriculture. There are other places and rougher ground where these things can be placed. Why would you take good farmland and put these things on it?’
The county hired a law firm for the issue that said while Cenergy Power might have a case, it was unlikely to win, especially because of the state’s current political climate, Youman said.
Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said fighting the disease would be “incredibly expensive and time-consuming.” It could cost the county between $300,000 and $500,000.
“Policy-wise, does Ogle County want to be the tip of the spear in the fight against the governor’s power grab?” said Rock. ‘The state took everything away. Do we want to be the province that fights it? This would bring the statewide zoning issue into focus if this is the battle you want to fight.”
After the approval, the board heard from Haldane resident Mike Bowman, who opposed the solar farm.
“My view north for the next 25 years will be this solar farm, which for all intents and purposes is the rest of my life,” Bowman said. “I can’t put up a visual barrier. My view now is a beautiful cornfield with Haldane Cemetery on the northern edge of it. I can no longer see the cemetery, where I have a lot of friends and family buried.
“Dirt is important to everyone in this room, to everyone in this country, because we live off what happens to agriculture. In one way or another, agriculture is connected to each of us.’
“It is very unfortunate that while our constituents are so strongly opposed to this, we have to weigh our decision on the lawsuit,” said board member Marcia Heuer. “In this day and age, that’s so sad.”
