P&z Meeting - Regular Meeting

Commission being held in the commissioner's meeting room in Monizuma County Administrative offices 109 West Maine room 2550 Cortez Colorado. We're going to open with the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Okay. Can we have roll call now? Commissioner Hernandez here. Commissioner Armstrong here. Commissioner Lynch here. Also present are Don Haley and Jane Duncan of the County Planning Department. Absent is Commissioner Neargard and Commissioner Saunders. and Commissioner Doyle. And Commissioner Doyle.

Okay. Please turn off your cell phone. Um, while you can, if you have an important call that comes in, you can step outside in the foyer. All right. The Monizuma County Planning Commission welcomes you to this meeting. This board is comprised of members who are tasked to make recommendations to the board of county commissioners. We're not decision makers. We encourage public comment after each permit. Persons speaking during the public comment will be limited to three minutes or depending on the number of people wishing to speak, it may be reduced at the discretion of the planning commission to allow all members of the public the opportunity to address their thoughts and concerns. When addressing the commission, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record prior to prior to providing your comments. Comments to individual applicants, which we really don't have, are not permitted and participants may not yield their time to others. Notice hereby given the Monazuma County and Planning Commission will hold a public hearing for the purpose of public input. This is important. regarding the land use code revisions concerning alternate energy sources, including solar farms. The hearing is to be held Thursday, July 24th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. in the commissioner's hearing room, Monizuma County Administrative offices, 109 West Maine, Cortez, Colorado. Interested persons may attend and give input. The discussion is for the alternate energy and public input into the regulations. Planning and zoning commission will not be taking comments against solar farms. We are looking for your input regarding

the land use code regulations. Okay. Okay. Are we going to open it up right away for public comment or you want have commissioner's discussion first? Uh um you guys if you want to have a brief discussion.

Yes, I do. I think it'll set the tone. Um we we were well Jason, Commissioner uh Armstrong, Commissioner Lynch were both here in May when we had the uh application for the large solar project and there was significant input at that time regarding uh the public's um position on it. So, I'm thinking that the size that was denied of 900 acres is probably not something that's not going to fly with this within this county. So, we do have a a solar farm, Don, wasn't it on road F out by the airport that we approved last two years ago?

There's one on F or L.4 with Empire Electric. It's 50 acres. 50 acres. Okay, sir. And there's two that are one south of town that's 20 acres and one at across from Totten Lake that's 20 acres.

Okay. So, we know that this county now has a 50 acre parcel. So, we the commissioners I'm saying that maybe that should that should be the the the the um the maximum of 50 acres. Um we need we know 900 is not going to fly. We know 50 does fly. Let's find something in between that we think the county can live with. Okay. And that's going to be something for us to discuss. Um along with input um something that I uh uh feel we need to address is the aggra voltage you know designation that the land use code is now going to have. We know the voltage is going to be the actual solar farm. the egg part of it. I would I would put on the developer to actually plant grass, hay, whatever so that animals can come and graze on that to actually make use of that piece of property both in both designations, the agricultural part of it and then the the the the voltage to solar. Um, another concerns of mine, uh, are the batteries. If there's going to be batteries that are, um, stored, uh, on the property, batteries are a hazardous material. Property owners have to disclose that when selling a piece of property. So, uh, and that's important in my mind that property owners know that when they're allowing this solar farm, whether it's 50 acres or whatever we decide is going to be the maximum, that they have to disclose that. So, it's not just a free ticket, a free ride. Um also Don I want to see about

entitlements before a developer comes to us with a again 50 acre uh solar farm or 100 acre whatever we decide is that he has entitlements to get that product that energy over to the transmission line so it can be put into the grid. Because if if if we if we and even yourself if you entertain an application and they don't have the easements necessary to take it from the site to the transmission lines then it's for not we've wasted our time commissioner's time. So, I think they should have entitlements in hand, not necessarily signed easements, but at least something from the property owners stating that we are in negotiations or we will listen to the developer. I'm sure that Commissioner Lynch and Commissioner um Armstrong have views on decommissioning. um that's going to be a big part of how we address these solar farms that come. What are we going to task that developer with dealing when the site goes down and 20 25 years that's the life expectancy uh of panels maybe they can renew the panels I don't know but when they do die and the the the solar goes away then we have to have in writing in the land use code a way for that site to be decommissioned at the expense of the developer. It's not going to fall on the citizens of this county. The developer is going to have to pay for that um via bonds or whatever. So that that um also the setbacks are going to be that are

going to be required for the solar farms uh fencing that type of thing. Those are the items that we are looking for your input on not to address no we don't want any solars in the county. We want to know how we can put these regulations into our land use code and it's your land use code. Okay, with that, Commissioner.

Um, yeah, I don't have much more to add. Thank you, Commissioner Hernandez, for that. Um, the one thing, and this is just kind of where I'm at with it. Um, out of respect for private property rights, I understand there's going to be very little chance that a 960 acre solar farm is going to be placed here just because of the limited amount of locations where that might work. But I am trying right now to not rule that out. I mean, if we have solid decision-m criteria in the code, um that sort of development will sort of take care of itself in terms of um view sheds, wildlife corridors, things like that. So, um that's the only thing I'll add from my perspective. And, uh thanks everybody for coming. This is great.

So, Commissioner Lynch, In the in the land use code, we have um several u places where limitations are put. And um in regard to alternative energy, especially the solar, um the first thing that my mind goes to is what in an allowable situation, one where people will accept uh what would the limitations need to be for the community to accept that? Um, are there going to be limitations on the the view the um view shed or whatever? I I don't know the technical technical term for that, but are there going to be is there going to be a a particular size and acreage that's uh uh acceptable or not acceptable? Um the decommissioning is a big thing. Uh it's especially a concern for um some of the comm commissioners that they've talked about in their meetings. Um a bond or some other way to ensure the county and the and the community that a project doesn't get turned over to a company that turns out to be a bad actor and things go to pot. Well, I don't mean pot. I mean things go downhill. So, um operating guard rails, how many how many of those uh panels out there need to be destroyed by by hail or any other way before they're going to be required to do something about it? How long how long is it going to stay there before they're required to do something about it? Um, and are we going to accept this on

agricultural zoned property or is it going to be a requirement that um it be commercial or industrial or utility zoning? Um, so there's a lot of uh things that I think need to be considered, but um I think the the purpose tonight is to try and get comments about limits where it's going to be possible to have solar. Not uh complaining about well we you know we can't have this and we can't have that. Um, I'm hoping that we can get some ideas from the community as far as um limits that they would be willing to live beside um that would make it acceptable. So, um that's kind of what I'm hoping for.

Okay. Now that we've set the stage, people understand what we're here to accomplish tonight. So, with that, we're going to open up that mic and let people come in to speak about Alternative energies in general name and address. Okay. Name and address, please.

Hi, my name is Elanor McFarland. I live at 18405 Road P.2 in Cortez. Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. Your time is very much appreciated. I'd like to share a solar and renewable energy wish list beginning with what's right about the land use code as it is written. First of all, I recommend keeping all agricultural land and rural character protections as they are and also keep renewable energy facilities on industrial zone land. You might correct that to existing industrial zone land and also add existing disturbed areas including landfill brownfields and built environment as placement sites and no spot zoning. Here are some recommendations for starters. My list keeps growing. Number one, define the different sizes. categorize PV systems from excuse me from small or personal scale to public utility scale and in between whether it's a solar facility or wind or hydro or nuclear it is a utility a one-sizefits-all approach to land use for renewable energy is inappropriate with that define each category and state the acreage range in each category number two determine the maximum number of utility facilities allowed in the county. Would it be one, two, three? Know what the maximum is that the infrastructure will support. Include density standards such as number of panels per acre, the percentage of parcel coverage, and setbacks. Number three, prior prior to approvals, any developer should provide evidence of contracts showing intent to purchase the power produced by the facility.

Number four, adult developers should provide evidence of where they expect to obtain the water for their use prior to construction. Number five, classify renewable facilities larger than personal use size or solar gardens as an energy generation plant or energy production facility. Number six, look into whether we should have any 1041 permit requirements. Do we need to treat every renewable construction project as activities of state interest as well as site selection and construction of major facilities of a public utility? Number seven, a decommissioning plan should include timeline specified by the county. Know who will oversee it and who will pay the costs of the oversight. Number eight, determine financial assurance as a shity bond for construction to completion to decommissioning. The amount should be determined by the county, not the developer. And number nine, any oversight compliance from construction to operation must be done by an engineer specified by the county, not the developer, and the cost should be be born be borne by the developer.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. [Applause] My name is Emily Waldron and I live at 13545 Road 32.4 in Minkus. Um, and I'm here. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Um, I just wanted to say a few things after listening to the debate about solar in the community over the past um, I don't know year. Um, I think that the code as it is actually is pretty good and doesn't need a huge revision. Um, I think one of the things that's really great about using a conditional use permit to approve something like this is that it gives the county a lot of flexibility to take public input and apply it directly to each specific application. So, as you consider these code updates, um I would urge you to allow renewable energies to continue to be considered as a conditional or a special use on AG land. Um I think the process is working as intended um as private land ownership. You can choose to lease your land to any energy source, oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, or not. Um, and so the county keeping their mind open about solar on a land doesn't take away rights from those individual land owners. Um, I think it's a great idea to have decommissioning plans and I think that um, the example exists in counties like Mesa County, Route County, and even in more traditional forms of energy extraction like oil and gas. And so I don't think um, the wheel needs to be invented. I think you can look at other examples and apply them pretty simply to this code. Um, and I think we need to be really forward thinking and keep an open mind about renewable energy um, generation

here because we're in a really unique position to be near um, transmission sources. Often in energy permitting like oil and gas, all of the agreements are not in place when the operator gets the permit. the permit needs to be had by the operator before they can sign those agreements. And so I would urge you to be really careful to say um you have to have those agreements for sale in place before you have the permit because sometimes that's not how business is done. Thanks for your time. Thank you. [Applause]

I'm waiting for the start. Uh El Gogan uh 13545 road 32.4 MUIS. Um thanks for taking the time to listen to us today. Um uh one thing I want to encourage you all to do is to look into the economics of utility scale solar. If you were to keep it at a 50 acre uh limit, we would never get another permit application again. Uh we need large area solar in order for it to be financially or fiscally viable. So um please look into that. uh when you're considering the maximum size, I do think it makes sense to define different sizes of solar installations. Everything from, you know, home use to a solar garden, uh and then on up, uh to utility scale. Um but, uh similar to what was said previously, um I think it is important that we do have a conditional use on a land. I think that could be focused towards productive a land, which is often described as irrigated. Um, and that is consistent with other land use codes in Colorado. Um, I also think we don't really need to reinvent the wheel here. There are a lot of good land use codes that have already gone through this process. They went through the moratorum. They updated their land use code. They have similar uh they're in a similar situation as us. Mesa County is one of those. I encourage you to look at that land use code. They've put in great definitions of different scales. They've also um defined uh you know specific requirements for decommissioning things of that nature which I completely encourage. Um so please look at what's been done already um to to try to avoid kind of unnecessary rework and um I think with that that's what oh I would also like to say uh the one reason we need to consider it on a if we re if we only require it to be on industrial there's no there there won't be any. So that's the same as a moratorum or that's the same thing as limiting it to 50 acres. Uh we would not get any

additional permits or we would end up spot zoning which I don't think is what any of us want to do. We want to make sure we have that conditional use permit um to be able to make the smart decisions um and and prioritize uh good land use. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. [Applause] Hi there, Billy Acres, 30777 Road H in Cortez. Um, uh, Commissioner John, uh, spot on. Loved your recommendations. Same way, all three of you had great recommendations. Um, and to those recommendations, I would ask, um, anybody who stands up here would be foolish to think you're going to please everybody. It ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. you know, but I would I would say if you could do a poll, ask the A people if they want it on Aland. Don't ask the city people, you know. So, you've got to have some, you know, you got to have some right information there. And do we want a lot of energy alternative energy plants in our county? If not, 50 50 acres is plenty. I I think uh you know, uh limiting them is a big thing. Um the reconditioning afterwards is a big thing. I'm up here just to ask one thing. As good stewards of Monizuma County, what is our top one or two industries in the county?

Agriculture number two probably um what is it? Walmart.

Walmart. Yeah. Um tourism. Tourism. So thinking about that, I ask when you go up on the mountain, the plateau, it's right next to our property. If you go to the plateau and you look down, you want to look down on the beauty that God created or you want to look down on the beauty that man created. You know, you have to justify that. Good point. So, I ask that you'll consider one one simple thing. As a good steward of our our land, limit the distance from an energy plant or an energy of source, anything like that, to five miles within five mile distance from a national park, a state park, national monument or a national archaeological area. That's a that's to me um that that caters to that tourism aspect that so many people come here for the natural beauty, history, etc. But one mile, if you get up on that mountain, one mile is not very far.

Yeah. You know, five miles, I think, is a fair distance. But you guys, I I what a breath of fresh air to hear y'all's recommendations. Those are those are great recommendations. So, that's all I had to share. Thank you. Hi, I'm Steve Underwood. I own Underwood Forestry and Tree Service. Do a lot of logging around here and um fire mitigation. Um what is your address, please?

Oh, 32490 Road in Mus. Um we have uh 686,481 acres of land and uh farms as agricultural zone. 92,000 of them are crop land that are um different than permanent pasture and rangeand according to the USDA. That's a lot of land to work with. Um I'm not sure why is this an issue when such a small amount of land is being considered for solar over the whole vast amount of land that we have in this uh county. Um, I want to relate a story of uh I used to work on a ranch up in Montana and the beaver head when I was young and uh they had the old traditional beaver slides and uh Clint and Barb were the owners and u Clint had to work as a diesel mechanic and Barb had to work as a teacher just to keep their uh 350 head of cattle running and this had been in their family for four generations and they or three maybe they were uh committed to having this for their children and and running those oldfashioned beaver slides. So when we take away the right of folks to earn an income on this to supplement um like our especially our uh crop plan then I think that needs to be considered very deeply. Um once solar is installed it keeps local dollars local instead of paying continuously for fuel to go out of town and out of state. Uh solar creates revenue for local land owners which I just mentioned. Um, these local solar farms will create jobs in our county and help make us more energy independent. Solar produces the most electricity when demand is the highest.

Okay, I'm going to stop you there. We we're we want your input on what recommendations for the land use code, not we don't need a history lesson on solar. We understand what solar is going to do or not do for the county. So, help us that way. All right. So during hot summer days when everyone's running AC though, it's the best time to have solar farms. Um, so it this complements oil and gas very well and I understand what you're saying, but this is just uh taking away some fundamental e economic rights for people to make a living and uh keep farms and farms. Okay, thank you.

Hello. Uh, thanks for having everyone here tonight. My name is Lauren Capki. I live at 3542 Foothill Road in Carpia, California. I'm here representing Acceleren Energy. We are a largecale solar and battery storage developer and we currently are developing a project in Monizuma County. I'm here to ask that you consider implementing regulations that allow for largescale solar development while protecting the county, nearby residents, and those property rights of the land owners who are choosing that solar may be the best use for their property at this time. Uh, I would recommend you model your land use regulations off of Mesa County or some of the other counties that have successfully implemented regulations that allow for development. Mesa County has adequate setbacks. It has visual screening requirements, noise requirements that projects have to demonstrate that they've met. Has requirements for environmental and cultural due diligence that we would have to demonstrate we've met those requirements and are not having undue impacts on uh environmental considerations. Um as well as it requires a decommissioning bond um for the county to be protected. If the project were not to operate for a specified amount of time, there would be a bond in place so that it could be decommissioned accordingly. I've seen in other counties also that the decommissioning plans and bonds are refreshed every say 10 20 years um so that the cost is reassessed and and the bond amount may be adjusted if needed

and that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Put this down a little bit for the shorties. Um, hi. My name is Alexia Hudson. My address is 16427 Road 18 Cortez. Um, I I will try to speak up. I'll speak in. Um, thank you.

I'm uh I'm in agreement that um the current land use code is, you know, well written so that um you know, we have the opportunity to speak um you know, yay or nay. And we've seen it happen multiple times over the county and you know with the dollar store and also the wedding venue. Um, but what I would like as um someone that was um directly affected by the uh the last big high um impact permit is I would like to see that there be um a def a defined um percentage of acreage um that there would be limitations on that. Um you know we had you know 200 acre field right next door that would be 100% solar. Um I would you know I feel like as a property owner adjacent and affected that it would be much easier to swallow if there if there were limitations on um the acreage that would be devoted to any kind of um you know high project at least with the um with the CO2 wells and that sort of thing. You know once the initial uh installation goes in you have a single pipe out of the ground. has like low um impact on your viewshed. Um whereas you know uh 200 acres is obviously obscuring your entire view um because that also includes the fencing. Um I also wanted um there to be something about wildlife migration especially out um in the beanlands in the dry land which um I hear is not as valuable but um to someone who grew up out there it's very valuable. We have a lot of wildlife. Um, and the property that we own, um, is a canyon that connects into Yellow Jacket.

And we have, um, deer, elk, bear, um, coyotes, um, you know, that across fields frequently, and I would like there to be some sort of guarantee that wildlife migration is not affected. um 6 foot high fence with a very narrow um you know uh corridor is not really going to cut it I don't think. Um so I that's something I would really like to see. I think it's important um to because this fencing um affects the ecosystem in in a lot of different ways. you know, if it's keeping predators out, then our deer population goes up. Or, you know, it's keeping predators in and uh killing our our cows or goats and, you know, our dogs, too. Um, I would also like to see there to be some sort of plan and more collaboration with neighbors.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. [Applause]

Hi, my name is Eric Kendrickson. and I live at 520 West 6th Street in Cortez. And I was caught a little bit off guard at the beginning. I I thought I didn't know there had been a final decision. I there's a proposal for a 960 solar facility and I thought that was still on the table and and I would encourage that. I think Monizuma County can adopt land use codes for alternative energy that other counties in Colorado have adopted. You don't the the phrase before we don't need to reinvent the wheel and the ba the advantage of the large scale solar facility is that it puts all that facility in one place. I understand some understand some people don't want it, but if you asked people, you shouldn't ask just part of Monizuma County. You should pull all of the county and the tax revenues from a largecale photoal facility photo facility would greatly benefit the county, especially since I understand we might lose some of our other tax uh tax monies. Um, you know, the whole country's dealing with this. It's not just Monzuma County. We can do it. I worked as an engineer. We had permitting processes. We wouldn't come up with some arbitrary rule about five miles. We did shed analyses. All of this has been done. You've got experts. They know what they're doing. We've done it before. It's the future. Um, embrace it. Thank you.

Thank you. How do you do? My name is Kevin Cook. I live in Manus at 257 South Main Street. Uh I've lived in the Four Corners area for 30 years. 24 of those in Monizuma County here. And I just have a few general observations. We have a lot of industry. We have the CO2 mining. We have uh gravel mining. We have uh uh various other industries here and uh I would just like to urge that we don't get into a uh uh a mindset where we're imposing uh restrictions on this particular industry uh for any reason prejuditial reasons ma mainly uh that we would impose on any other industry that comes in here and uh and basically tries to do something. Uh I think there's there's a lot of good recommendations that have been made by prior speakers. So I'm not going to uh repeat those. Uh but uh my own feeling is is that uh without getting too specific is that there is a a limit on there should be a limit on size. However, it shouldn't be restrictive as as other speakers here have noted. uh the uh there was pardon me uh and uh let's see here um I also wanted to say that uh see here um kind of lost my place here uh

um anyway uh I I think that uh I think I've missed something here, but other people are waiting to speak and they they need to be heard as well. So, uh, that's I'll leave it at that for the moment. I have anything more to say, I'll write you guys a note. Thank you.

Okay. I want to reiterate ourselves. Let's go back to the thought of giving us valuable input on what you would like to see as recommendations in the land juice code. My name is Don How, 17557 Road P in Cortez. And you guys have already hit on a lot of the points I was going to bring up, but I'll just go through them quickly. Uh, if a large to medium scale facility is to be transferred to another owner, which is a common practice for the company building the project for county protection, it should include a public hearing. A developer must show documentation of owner authorization and agreements must be recorded with the county. The need to address aggravates. It's a dual land use that doesn't fit into existing zoning definitions. The maximum structure height might need to be increased. The spacing between the panel rows might need to be wider. These could lead to increased costs and should be considered for bonding and decommissioning. And from the NREL report titled County Land Use Regulations for Solar Energy Development Colorado, think of aggravates as a proposed solution to keep a landl in production and a means to increase local acceptance of a solar project, not necessarily something that will solve all the problems put forward by the solar industry. Deciding on fencing requirements, how high, what type, placement relative to neighboring properties, not necessarily take the word of the developer for what their minimum requirements are. Need to determine acceptable means for vegetation management. Again, not necessarily what a developer has used in the past or thinks is great for our area. That's about all I got. Thank you guys.

Thank you. [Applause] I'm Beth Hal, 17557 Road P. And uh you guys have hit on a lot of things I was going to say, so I'll just make it really brief. That's all right. Be specific about visual impacts depending on locations of utility utility scale solar facilities and other renewables. I'm sorry. Speak into the mic, please. Just kind of There you go. Get it real close. Is that better?

There you are. Keep in mind that much of the county can be seen from any other part of the county, the next two counties over and at least one or two states. Wildlife impacts developers should provide scientific documentation that their wild life mitiga mitigation plans are truly effective. Saying wildlife corridors will be provided doesn't accomplish anything if the wildlife leave the area due to construction habit/habitat change. Outline solar sitting definitions related to all types rural eggland whether irrigated productive prime and cover crop under a conservation program etc. Fire mitigation was the top priority in Monazma County. A developer should declare expansion plans prior to approval address land subject to severe wind and water erosions. emergency preparedness and response. I mean, the list can go on, guys, but I hope this helps.

Thank you. [Applause]

I'm Roger Folks, sons live at 712 Elway here in Cortez. And I was born and raised out in there on the on the dry land. And from the time I was about 8 years old till I went off to school at 18 or so, I would help my dad and we'd go out and farm. And there was out of those 10 years or so, I can count two years that were probably pretty good years, the rest of those years were pretty pretty limited. And I can remember him sitting at the table trying to figure out how he's going to talk the banker into one more year. And so when we're talking about the value of dry land, agriculture land, you can go out there and count the farmers now. And as far as I know, there's only one on that whole area that's ready to that's ready to farm. It's a tough way to make a living and a lot of them have decided to go somewhere else. And so when the the solar thing came alive to me, I thought, "Wow, what a what a good thing here. Might be a chance to uh get ahead of something like this." And so the but the agriculture land where it gets no water, it's it's tough way to make a living. And I can attest to that.

Thank you. My name is Gary Folks, Rogers Brother, and I live at 67365 Sunshine Road, Montrose, Colorado. And like he says, our our family had a piece of property on Goodman Point. And basically, it's it's was part of the solar system before. Nevertheless, the thing that you guys if you guys have to put restrictions on, don't put minimal restrictions. Make it a thousand acres and let deal with them on on an individual basis. You got a viable candidate that wants to put a solar system in here, he's going to spend millions and millions of dollars. A lot of that's going to feed you folks and these folks and it's all going to be well. So the fewer restrictions you would do and take it as an individual scenario of all the different nuances that go along with what you do for here, take it that do not do not put a whole bunch of rules because you're going to take a viable candidate to want to do this because the infrastructure is here to do it already. If you take that away, they're not going to come. Thank you.

Thank you. [Applause]

Um Landon Wilson, 25227 Road 14, Pleasant View. Um I have been here several times and my biggest thing is just um protecting the a land. You know, I'm a farmer. Um my full-time job is farming. Me and my dad, we farm 2,000 acres of irrigated and dryland farm grounds. So, I know what it is as a farmer. Um, and I am here to protect the a land. You know, it it sounds simple. Um, some people may think that our food comes out of Walmart. It doesn't. It comes on the on the land that we have here in the county and it's a big productive thing. Um, so I would ask that you define what productive a land is. You know, we all know that irrigated is productive, but dryland can be productive as well. um you know it's been known to have 70 bushel wheat on dryland farm. So I would ask if you do include the term productive define that a little bit more. Um another thing would would be it sounds kind of kind of silly but to have a code enforcer. Um I think Dolores County is a great lesson for us. um you know they have a specific route and I live out there on that route and um the construction people are supposed to be using those specific routes but they don't. So what are you guys going to do if if the company promises this but they end up using a different route or something like that. So not not micromanaging but having someone out there to kind of be like hey you aren't using this correct route or you said you were going to do this but you weren't. Um and you know just going back protect a land. Um so thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Amanda Barcinis 23905 Road 12 in Pleasant View. Um I love what everyone's saying tonight. I think they're giving a lot of good input. Um I do believe that we need to protect the property values of neighboring uh properties. From the studies I found any solar project of large scale um closer than 1,000 ft from a neighboring property can affect the property values negatively between 1.7 and 5.6% um reducing the property values of the neighboring properties. This depends on the size and visibility of the projects. Um, that being said, we should have visual impact studies that provide imaging from neighboring properties showing what it would look like at full tilt with these panels um, and how it's surrounding properties. I don't feel like they should be allowed to encompass properties on more than three sides. Like that's an issue that we ran into with a project that was proposed previously is that we had neighbors that were completely boxed in by these projects basically going to feel like they're in a prison yard with all this fencing around their house. Like that's not a way to live. So we should not be enclosing and doing checkerboard patterns around other properties. Um I do feel like we need uh decommissioning required at application. All equipment should be removed within 12 months of nonoperation. So there should be a time limit if they're not using the um equipment and how long they need to get rid of it. There shouldn't just be this lingering amount of time. Um they need to be uh the land needs to be restored back to the original condition.

financial shy bonds with inflation adjusted uh every five years to cover the full removal removal. Uh a lot of times these projects are often sold off. So this needs to be set throughout the life of the project no matter who the owner is. There should be public notice for all residents that live within a mile of the project in the planning stages so they're not just hit with this project out of nowhere. The companies should be required to have publicformational meetings um so they can answer question for these neighbors. Uh any damage to neighboring properties whether it's during construction or with runoff uh the company should be required to pay for all of this um you know damage to any neighboring properties however it occurs. I do believe that industrial projects should be zoned as such. I don't think it should be on a land or they should have other requirements.

Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]

Hi, I'm Joy Cochran, 16789 Road S. Cortez. Um, just so you know, I'm in the recovery program of the last 960 acre plan that was uh before you all a couple months ago. I was going to be surrounded by it. So, this is where I'm coming from um with my recommendations. What I felt was missing was um an independent impact study to the neighboring community. I just felt like it was all their word and their promises. And I would have liked to have seen maybe an actual size of the panel. We were never told what size the panels were to be, you know, put up so we could see exactly what would happen at sunset when all the panels were facing my home. Um so some sort of independent impact study uh and not uh financed by us uh financed by them. And then probably my my biggest concern is oversight. Um promises made versus actual execution. I feel like there should be some progress reports done at specific times designated by you um where they come to you and there are maybe fines attached for non-compliance if it's road reconstruction or whatever. I don't know. That's that's not my area of expertise, but I'm hoping it it can be yours. Um, and I just want to say, you know, this is a privilege to take our land out there, dry land or wetland. We, um, I am part of the family that are the farmers out there or the farmer out there who's doing a beautiful job. If you drive out there now at Goodman Point, it's beautiful. And the

wheat uh, crops this year are fantastic. And it's a privilege to take our land and to tie it up for 30 years. It should not be easy and they should prove themselves and they should be held accountable. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]

Hi, my name is Jurgen Corb at 12712 Road 17 in Cortez up at Goodman Point. Thank you for the opportunity to listen to our concerns. Um whoever attended the the last meeting about the Kman point situation will know uh how the agricultural community feels about this whole thing. The agricultural community is not against solar. They are simply against solar farm of thousands of acres or whatever. So I liked a lot uh some of your suggestions are definitely limited in size. Um what I would um like to ask you to consider is the distance between any alternative energy situation and a residential dwelling. Um if you look at those numbers that these guys proposed at Goodman Point, um 900 acres and 300,000 solar panels, that's that's still 333 panels per acre. And even if you go to 10 or 20 acres limit at 20 acres that's 6,660 panels. So I would like to ask you to think about this. Please consider like the my the previous lady suggested the size of the panels. Right. Um I personally with my wife we live on off-grid solar and we have a 2.4 kilowatt system and it's one panel. It has eight sub panels and it's about 10 by 12 ft. So you see how little one needs to live comfortably without any power. So, please consider the size of the panels because if you just say it's five acres and these guys can 50 can go 50 ft high then you could ruin a lot of

people's view and existence when they just build a house somewhere to get away from all this and and uh the other thing is um the distance you know these guys proposed at Goodman point to have a distance of only 600 ft from a residential dwelling if I remember correctly and that after they basically told us that we we doubled it or whatever. Um, so just whenever you make your recommendation, just picture this, you know, picture this would be your house and you had to look at 20 acres or 6,660 panels. Would you want to be 600 ft away from it or would you have like to have maybe a bigger buffer? Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, [Applause]

Carla Dembi 11799 Road 26 Cortez. Um, amazing comments. I've learned so much tonight. I'm really glad I came. Um, I'm I'm here just to encourage you two things. do please don't do not button hole the county into an acreage amount and and not look at any alternatives but but probably secondly to to look as other people said at what other counties have done. Mesa County just uh up updated their land use code uh for solar in the past year. Talk to them. What do they wish they had done differently? How happy are their citizens? I mean, get some of these questions answered that these people have asked tonight before you finalize your plan because they've they've made a blueprint, but chances are there are things they would do differently and learning that information ahead of time will really benefit everyone in the county. Thank you.

Thank you. [Applause]

Hi, thank you for coming here and letting us present. My name is Sandy Simons. I live at 17642 Road S, Cortez, Colorado. And I'm really kind of shooting at the hip here and kind of reacting to what I'm hearing here tonight. Um, and first of all, I'm not sure it's going to help the planning, but I just want to get out there is what I'm hearing is we've got people that are commenting that live in town that aren't going to see the solar and we have people living out of town that are giving you some really good recommendations because it's going to affect them and they're going to see it. Um, I did not hear when you were presenting the 50 acres and this and that and the batteries. I didn't hear anything and I don't know if it's within the planning department, but the construction and how disruptive the construction can be just going down the roads to people. And I didn't hear where that was included in anything in the planning part of it. Um, so that's mainly my point here is something about the construction going on and the trucks and what's that going to do to the residents that um, this is affecting because it's not going to affect the people in town that are all for this, but it's going to affect those of us that are out of town and it's going right by our streets. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Vera Mosley. I don't ha I My question has nothing to do with planning. My question has to do with I'm sorry, your address. Oh, 5182 South 160. Will our county, our area benefit from this power source going into our power grid? Will we get any of the electricity out of it or is it going downrange someplace? Do we know?

No. Thank you. I just wonder. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Samantha Sanchez. I live on 16277 Road 20. And my concern is these any solar panel facility going in close to anyone's home with any kind of major magnitude I'm saying of acreage because um unless you live next to one, you don't hear when it gets super windy around here at times and those panels make an energy vibration when the wind is hitting them and once you don't what a lot of people don't know is that they create an energy vibration and everything is energy and energy affects the cellular structure of everyone because everyone is energy. It's the same thing they've been finding that these solar wind farms that are going in are making people really really sick because of the noise velocity that they put off. It's the same thing when these panels start rattling when uh the wind hits them and we get a lot of wind through here over the winter especially. Um it can really make people sick. I think they should be required to do a study on how it affects and prove to us that it's not hurting our energy aura field around our cellular structure that it isn't making us sick because I know that it is. And I would like them to have to prove that. And I don't believe any of these solar farms should be going in within a mile of anyone's personal residence. Personally, I think that should be checked upon because of the health issues, the MFS, the electromagnetic frequencies that these panels put off. They haven't proven to us that they don't make people sick and they don't cause cancer. And I would

like a study them to have to do a study on that. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. [Applause] My name is Joel Lee. Um 13812 County Road 28, Dolores, Colorado. Um I'm a se seventh generation farmer rancher in in the county. I jumped off the swathther literally burning here trying to make it on time. And I will go as soon as I'm done here. I'm going to go back and get on the tractor for quite a few hours after this. I've worked two jobs for 25 years trying to keep our farm and ranch alive. And I'm I really encourage the commission to really strongly look at reg not putting regulations on people that handcuff them um when they're trying to make uh multi-gener generational decisions. I think uh strong regulation that are very specific to one product are wrong just because people disagree with it. I think that's not right. Um I also people are talking about all these fees. If you're going to take away property rights from farmers, there should be fees to compensate them. You're taking away rights and options for them to feed their family. You should take it away. You shouldn't be you should there should be a a compensation for that. So, if you're going to take away rights, try to compensate these people for that. Um, I I just think it's horribly unfair to put all the regulation on one side and not the other. Um, I've, like I said, I've worked hard trying to keep our family farm going, but I don't want to be overly regulated, and I just think that's horribly unfair. There could be other it it might work fine for solar, but if you do these you make these decisions specifically for solar, they're going to tie you and set a precedence for other things in the

future. And I think people need to be wise and thoughtful about the impacts that it could have when it's not solar when there's another industry that could really benefit our our our area. And uh I also think that people are talking about impacts of this and that. You know, for me, for my family, as a ranch family, the biggest impact has been development. It's been all of us moving here to want to love this area to death. And so it happens. It's life. We have to understand that that's going to happen. But the biggest impact to me was the lack of allowing 100 people to build houses next to me. And now I can't afford farm ground. I can't expand my I could never afford a farm here. All I can only reason I even marginally make it is because my family was some of the first white people here. Unfortunately, we probably took that from somebody else and that's what people are doing to us now. So I strongly encourage you to keep the regulations small. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Okay. With that, we've come to an end then. And I appreciate all the input from each of you that spoke and we're going to do our best to really think this out. And again, we are just the uh adviserss. We're going to put something together. And by the way, we have Mesa's Mesa County's uh uh land use code relating to solar. So we we are not reinventing the wheel. We got something to follow. Thank you.

Thank you.