Hancock County Board

Hancock County Required to Amend Solar Ordinance

Joy Swearingen, The Quill Correspondent

The Hancock County board was faced with an amended commercial solar energy facility siting ordinance at their board meeting May 19. Because of Illinois legislation passed last year, county restrictions on solar projects cannot be more limiting than state requirements. Counties were required to rewrite and approve solar ordinances to meet the state standards by June 1.

The Hancock County board passed their new ordinance, but not before adding an amendment of their own.

The board added “acts of God” to the clause which makes the land owner responsible for damage to any public or private property nearby, due to such things as construction, operation, emergency event, or decommissioning of the solar facility, or omissions of the owner or workers of the facility.

Justin Greeley of Bellwether, a consultant who has helped the county with compliance in state regulations, said the addition of “acts of God” might not be enforceable. 

However,  a “catch-all” provision in Hancock County’s ordinance states that if any portion of the law is deemed unlawful, the remainder will stand.

State’s Attorney Bobi James said she has talked with the county insurance agent to be sure anything added to the ordinance will not increase county’s liability.

Greeley noted that in some cases, the new law is more restrictive than the county’s current ordinance. In other ways it is more lenient. There are changes in the upper limits of filing fees, and in the timeline for moving the project application through its process. The maximum height of solar projects was increased to 20 feet. 

The vote for the new ordinance passed 11-3, with Alex Blythe, LeAnn Lambert and Steve Lucie voting no. Ryan Weeks was absent.

While passing the ordinance, several concerns remain. Mark Menn said he wants to see a provision added requiring any debris from a wind or solar farm to be disposed of by recycling or at a registered waste facility. It should not be buried on land where the project is located.

A second concern explained by Greeley during the hearing related to building battery storage facilities which are used by data centers. Because Hancock County does not have zoning, it cannot regulate battery storage facilities. 

“That can be a potential way of pushing data centers to more rural areas of the state,” Greeley said.

“We need to be proactive on this. I think that is the next step to look at,” said Steve Lucie. “Let’s be clear. We are losing our local authority. The only way we keep our authority is to stand up against what the state is doing.”

Changes or additions can be made to the ordinance in the future, requiring advance notice of a public hearing before action is taken.

In other business, the board approved the building permit for Hamilton Sun LLC solar project, near the Connable Road on an 8 to 6 vote, with Bollin, Castlebury, Douglas, Finney, Hanson, Menn, Merritt and Rogers voting yes, and no votes from Blythe, Turner, Harrison, Boyles, Lambert and Lucie.

The board approved the low bid of $170,886 from W.L. Miller for work on a Walker Township road.

The board approved a gift of $8,000 to Hancock County Special Olympics, coming from the county’s contingency fund. The group missed out on grant funds this year, and the finance committee recommended providing this assistance.

Funds to complete the cabling project between the Circuit Clerk’s office and the court rooms were approved, not to exceed $75,000. Money will come from the County Court Fund, which can only be used for court services. The project was stopped by the Hancock Building Commission because holes were being drilled into the courthouse walls as the cable was being installed.

The board agreed to buy a 2014 Ford F550 ambulance from the city of Lucas, Texas, for $65,000. The rig has an automatic lift for the patient cot. Funds that were being considered to buy a second ambulance will instead be used to convert current ambulances with similar lift equipment.

The following appointments were approved by the board:

• George Salrin and Rod Bruns for five-year terms on Dallas Rural Water, and Holly Wilde-Tillman as county registrar.

• Bids for two county bicentennial banners were accepted from Susan Cheney and Scott Cheney.

• The board agreed to put garbage collection up for bidding.

• A tax deed for property was approved.