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Illinois Times, the capital city's weekly source of news, politics, arts, entertainment, culture
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The Sangamon County Board voted 15-8 to reject a proposed 20-acre solar farm adjacent to a residential subdivision on the west side of Springfield, even as the board’s lawyer warned Summit Ridge Energy, the petitioner, may be able to sue the board and get the solar panels installed anyway.
Assistant state’s attorney Joel Benoit, who serves as the board’s legal adviser, said the Virginia-based company, which has more than 100 solar farms in Illinois, has submitted a petition for the 1300-1500 block of Lenhart Road that follows legal guidelines. The state’s overarching laws on renewable energy zoning specifically “requires counties to allow commercial, utility-scale solar and wind energy conversion systems to be sited in areas zoned for agricultural or industrial use,” according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fact page. “A county can have more lax requirements than called for in state law, but it cannot have more restrictive requirements.”
Benoit said the corporation would likely have a strong case in court.
“The proponent would have a good case if, in fact, all the requirements of applicable law were met and we denied it,” he said in response to questions from board members. However, he said nearby residents objecting based on a possible decline in property values would not have a strong case against the county. “In my opinion, they could sue the county, but they would be unsuccessful.”
Brendan Urban, representing Summit Ridge Energy, told the board that the project met all statutory standards and Summit Ridge agreed to move the project a few hundred feet back from Lenhart Road.
“The Whisper Walk solar project meets every requirement of Chapter 17.37 of the county code and also the applicable state laws. It comes to you with favorable recommendations from the planning commission staff and the approval of the ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals) on May 21,” Urban said. “I do have some updated site plans based on some feedback from the community…the big difference is we’ve moved the facility about 200 feet off of Lenhard Road to get it further away.”
George Hinton, whose property would border the proposed solar farm, expressed concerns about home values being impacted.
“I am opposed to this project,” Hinton said. “(Residents are) concerned about the impact on our property value…to sell your home and, oh my God, there’s this solar facility there and it’s all rural farmland except 30 homes around there.”
He researched the issue and discovered a 2023 U.S. Department of Energy study that found that homes sold within a half-mile of large-scale solar projects experience an average 1.5% discount compared to homes sold two to four miles away – the trend was measurably observed for “low population density” area homes near solar farms constructed on agricultural land in Minnesota, North Carolina and New Jersey.
“The greatest adverse negative impact on property values were on areas that are rural, low density and they’re zoned (for) agriculture, and I thought, ‘Bing, bing, bing. Our area has all three,’” Hinton said.
The study claims to provide “the first comprehensive evidence on the impact of (solar farms) on residential home values,” which looked at home sales near solar projects in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina. The six-state study area encompasses 53% of the total megawatt nameplate capacity of photovoltaic generators in the U.S.
Sangamon County professional staff say they have not studied the issue locally.
“We are unaware of any negative impacts to surrounding sites. However, we have not done any studies with the current solar projects we have in Sangamon, Illinois, so I don’t have any information for that,” said Trustin Harrison, county zoning administrator.
District 18 board member Sam Cahnman asked Harrison if the county has ever looked at property values near solar projects. “Are you saying that solar farms that we’ve approved in Sangamon County in the past, that you have zero information as to whether that’s had any impact on property values?”
“That’s correct,” Harrison replied.
District 7 board member Craig Hall previously proposed a resolution to circumvent the state’s latest laws that prevent local governments from having stricter authority on zoning for renewable energy projects. It remains in the board’s Zoning and Land Use Committee.
Don Craven, a lawyer who represents some of the almost two dozen townships and villages that have expressed support for Hall’s proposal, said it would be legally feasible to rezone 1.5 miles of buffer real estate that municipalities say would allow them to grow residential subdivisions as local leaders see fit.
“If you rezone it so that agricultural and industrial uses are not part of the zoning process, the solar bill of rights doesn’t apply,” Craven said at a May 21 Zoning and Land Use Committee hearing. “What we want to do is rezone these residential, which will allow this committee and the villages – through this committee – to have a say in how that land around those villages is used.”
Benoit said he was unsure of the proposal’s legality and has sought outside counsel from Daniel Hamilton, a partner at the Springfield-based law firm Brown, Hay and Stephens.
“(Hall) got the ball rolling on something that people are interested in, and we’re going to look at it,” Benoit said in May.
The county’s next zoning meetings are slated for June 18 at 5:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
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Dilpreet Raju is a staff writer for Illinois Times and a Report for America corps member. He has a master's degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and was a reporting fellow… More by Dilpreet Raju
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