Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. I'd like to welcome everybody to the March uh 2026 uh planning commission meeting. And I'm going to start off with our normal housekeeping items here. Commissioner Black, would you go ahead and take the role, please? Sure. Miller here. Choke here. Black here. M. Dill edgel here. Coffin clear here. Mr. Kelly

here. We have a quorum. We have a quorum. Thank you, sir. All right. We're going to move ahead to the minutes from the previous meeting which um I don't think is there shows here we got minutes from the July January and February meetings here. Yeah, I went back and watched the recording and somehow we missed it last month approving the January minutes. So, I'm new. I'm okay. Give me a break. Hey, we'll just hit them both tonight. How about we just approve them all for next year? What you Sounds good to me. Yeah. All right. I'm sorry. No, you're um we'll uh Does anybody have any questions? Any comments about the minutes that from last month or the ones we forgot to vote on the month before? No. All mine's clear. I'll entertain a motion to accept those.

Motion to accept. We have a motion to accept. Second. Second. Motion and second to accept the minutes from January and February meetings. All those in favor ads by saying I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion carried. All right. No unfinished business. new business is a large scale development for pardon me I don't have my glasses on a solar army array I'm sorry solar array located along Hobnob road submitted by infra on behalf of Cherokee Nation Entertainment you have a staff report on that for us yes sir we do

as was stated this is a large-scale development off Hobnob road for a new solar array Currently, this property is an open field zone C5 highway commercial casino district. The property is surrounded to the north and east by C5 zoning and to the south and west by C2 highway commercial zoning as well as a small M1 light industrial zone caddy corner to the southwest of the property. Surrounding uses include an RDOT facility, mobly concrete, a TLI facility, and other open fields that are owned by Legends Resort and Casino Arkansas. In the review of this proposal in the C5 highway commercial casino district section 2.10.2 refers you to the table of permitted uses where a utility substation i.e. solar array use is a permitted use and is subject to the provisions contained in the land subdivision code pertaining to large scale developments. In the land subdivision development code or LSDC section 7, it states that any large-scale development meeting any one of the following criteria shall be reviewed by the planning commission prior to issuance of a building permit or other city permit. Article 7.2.1 states that buildings or developments placed on a plot of real property 5 acres or larger. And article 7.2.2 two states any development containing an existing building or buildings with combined square footage of 15,000 square feet or larger. For the purposes of this application, staff is considering the solar arrays themselves as structures. The applicant has met the checklist items for article 7.4. Article 2.10.3 site plan review is required and will be completed prior to the issuance of a building permit. This application along with additional details outlined below will be needed to complete the review. Article 2.10.4 area regulations. Solar structures appear to

meet setback requirements for the C5 zone but will be confirmed with the site plan review prior to any permit issuance. Article 10 2.10.5 parking regulations. This site is unique in that there is no parking needed as this is a private utility substation. The only time vehicles will be on site is when maintenance is needed on the solar panels. As a result, no parking is proposed. This additionally means there is no ADA parking requirement as there will be no public access to the site and no parking provided in general. Article 3.22 commercial building design. This is another situation wherein the proposal is unique as compared to other developments. While this development is occurring in a commercial zone, there will be no buildings on site. Therefore, commercial building and site design, while theoretically triggered by this development, are not applicable. Article 3.23.13. This development does trigger the sidewalk requirements. Due to the unique location, development, and topography of the site, the applicant has reached an agreement with our public works department and will be utilizing the payment inlue option. The applicant will generate a cost estimate for the construction of the sidewalk and once reviewed and agreed upon by the city, the applicant will pay the inlua fee. Article 4.1, the applicant is proposing a six-foot fence surrounding the entirety of the site. The applicant will be pursuing a variance to allow a 7-ft fence as called out on their plan set. However, at this time, they are proceeding with the six-foot fence proposal. Article 5.1 landscaping required. This development does trigger the landscaping requirements per article 5.3.1 as it is a new commercial development. 5.7 street trees i.e. one every 50 ft street trees do not appear to be shown. We will confirm the details with the site plan review. 5.8 street frontage

buffer. They are 10 ft wide. Five small trees or shrubs every 50 ft. If it does appear sufficient in review, we will confirm with the site plan review. 5.9 Interior parking lot that is landscape islands every 16 parking spaces. This is not applicable in this situation. 5.10 perimeter buffer 5T in width one large tree or two small every 50 ft. Again, appears sufficient. We will confirm with the final site plan review. Article 6.1 parking. There will be no minimum number of spaces required and as previously stated, none is proposed as this site will have no frequent staff on site and will not be open to the public. A statement or parking analysis will still be required with the building permit and shall at a minimum provide the number of off- streetet parking spaces proposed on the site, number of shared parking spaces or on street parking spaces to be considered for that calculation. uh the expected number of employees at any given time, number of customers at any given time as well as any other information showing that the proposed parking will be sufficient for the use. Again, it is anticipated that this will be zero. Um article 6.1.6 driveways. The applicant is proposing a 15 foot wide concrete driveway which is permitted by code. The proposal additionally includes gravel behind the fenced area. The fence will be screened so that the gravel cannot be seen from the ride ofway and therefore this vehicle storage area will be permitted. Article seven regarding signage. Any new signs will require a permit and must be submitted to permitting for review. Therefore, staff recommends that the commission approve this large-scale development of a new solar array with the following condition. One, that the applicant provides details as noted within the staff report as being required to confirm compliance with the site plan review as a result of the findings below that the applicant has expressed their commitment to adhere to zoning regulations. And two, that the

applicant demonstrates compliance with regulations. Are there any questions for staff at this time? Thank you.

Thank you. No questions at all. Is there anybody here? We didn't we didn't have a signup sheet here, but does anybody else want Did you Are you guys here representing the them or No. Okay, I have a question. If you would step up to the mic and state your name for the record so we can get it logged in, please.

My name is Jordan Tinsley. I'm a vice president of development at Infra, which is the design build company that purport or proposes uh to build this development. Somewhere in the paperwork, I read that there was vegetation going to be planted that's known to grow under these.

So, this is a groundmounted solar array and the original vegetation is actually anticipated to remain under the panels which sit above just above the ground about 2 and 1/2 ft above the ground. So, we're not replacing the vegetation, we're just putting the ground mounted array above the existing grass field. And how will that be maintained if they're only two and a half feet up? Are you bringing in sheep or

We will obviously do, you know, landscaping as necessary to keep the grass at a, you know, level. It would obscure the solar array if we don't maintain it. So, we're going to have to maintain it. And the the intent is just to manage the vegetation um periodically as necessary. It's like a low level robot.

Uh, you'd have to ask Chris the technical question. And so my colleague Chris Galloway, he's more familiar with the ground mounted technology, but there are vegetation management machines that are designed to manage vegetation under these panels. All right. Um, anybody else have any questions before you step?

There's some mention about the size of the fence or the height of the fence that you guys are looking at. Can you guys maybe give a little bit more detail? You know, I know there's discussion around six foot fence from this perspective, but now we're looking at seven foot. Does it have to do with glare? Does it have to do with privacy and and you know security from the race perspective or

Yes sir. So in our opinion and obviously we aren't going to be able to dictate this to the board of adjustment but there's a national electric code that has been promagated by the appropriate national authorities. That code requires a 7 foot fence around a facility of this type. Your local code only allows a six-foot fence. So, we are going to seek a variance from the board of adjustment to comply with the national code. And my understanding of why that requirement is in the national code is to keep unwanted access out of the facility, avoid potential liability issues. If someone were to gain access and mess with something, it is electrified. So, it is a security concern and that's the primary issue. We had originally proposed, this may be more information than you need. We had originally proposed to have some barb wire. Our understanding is that that's not going to be acceptable. We're backing off that. We just would like to have 12 in of additional fencing. And so we understand that if we're not allowed to do that variance, we'll have to proceed with a six-foot fence. But certainly we hope that the board of adjustment would recognize that there's a conflicting national code provision that in our experience would typically supersede a local code. But again, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Um,

this is not the place for there to be too much information. It will be drug added. If you don't give it to us, we're going to ask for it. So we're we're an open book. You know, we've really enjoyed working with the staff. they've had excellent advice for us throughout this process and um you know hopefully we we've been able to address their concerns I think they would say and ideally we can address yours um but that's why we're here so if there are additional concerns about the development you know we will do our best to address them as we move through the process

staff looking into that 7 foot versus six foot that I mean that would be I mean if if it's a safety or whatever that issue is you know how that might supersede our local stuff then um you I I know it needs to come up to the the board of adjustments, but if it is a safety or anything else, how what's the city's plan on on addressing that? We don't have a specific set plan yet, but it might be worth bringing to Long Range, for example, to create a situation where if there's an industrial use or a um or something like this where there's a national precedent, maybe we can move our zoning. That's why I really that's why I asked that question because I mean it's you know just because it's our city you know I mean if they've got a if there's a reason why 7 foot is better then you know we need to know.

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. That's something that staff will look into. That answered my question. All right. Thanks sir. And if I could just piggyback on that a lot of the local codes that we see sometimes have a provision that says that if there's a superseding national code that that can kind of substitute for the local code. So, not again, not to get ahead of, but you may want to consider having a similar provision in your local code that just says, you know, if there's a national code that's been promulgated that has a different standard, you know, maybe you default. That's exactly what I just asked him to do. So, all right. Well, all right. Sorry for editorial.

No, no, no. You're good. No, you're good. No, there's no such thing as too much information. I appreciate it. I mean, you know, we hear we hear everything and we want to uh make sure we're doing what's best for the community and our our cities. Yes, sir. and we build all over so we see a lot of local codes. Um, so just trying to bring a little perspective. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Did you have anything you wanted to add while you're here or not? Okay.

I can't hear you, sir. And I don't know your name. Step up here and fix both of them. Okay.

Yeah. Hello. I'm Chris Galloway, vice president with Infra as well. And uh couple of items I just thought I would inform the group of is the you may have or someone may have a concern about reflection off the solar array. I'd like to put your mind at ease. The panels are uh coated with an anti-glare uh coating. Not only that, but the panels are situated in a peak condition with like a very slight peak at 8% and they're facing east and west. So almost any and all reflection would be facing vertical. And given the site location, we don't see that as a as a significant impact. But I just want to share this with you. Uh, another question that someone might have might be in regards to electromagnetism, electromagnetic field. Insignificant. It it all exists at the inverter array that converts the DC power to the AC. It's it if you're familiar with what a variable frequency drive is, it's the same thing. It's very insignificant in this array. In terms of a noise sound, you'll have a convention or a conventional transformer would be present along with minor cooling fans on the inverters. All this stuff pair pales to comparison to the interstate traffic nearby. So essentially no no impact from noise. Uh you may have an environmental concern. There are no chemicals that could leech into the ground. This like like maybe a oil type transformer could have. None of that exists. So, uh, so you're pretty solid on an environmental perspective. And in regards to safety and security, uh, the system is designed to meet the 100red-year wind requirement, uh, as part of the code for uplift and attachment. So, so in terms of a a climatic event, you're protected. We we do have a decent setback from the road as well as the uh ditch that would uh provide some measure of protection against vehicular uh traffic and uh

moreover the system is completely designed with full compliance to NEC 691 and all local code and provisions and so we'll have ground fault uh current interruption. Think of that as shock protection. So should you get a vandal who thinks he wants to come down here and do something advisable. The system does have provisions to protect people from poor decisions. But then there's also a arc fault current interruption as well. Think of that as fire protection as well. And both of these interrupterss uh they'll trigger within milliseconds. So, uh I'm not going to say that there couldn't be a condition where a panel might spark uh uh after let's say if a uh a tornado lifted some heavy object landed in the array and you know I can't really forecast every scenario but we have included provisions to keep the the array safe from most reasonable expectations and uh yeah that I just kind of wanted to uh to share that

what's the lifespan of those panels over 15 years for for active production and they'll they'll they'll live longer but for rated capacity they they have a degradation coefficient that that we we model it as about a half a percent per year uh loss and degradation before we need to replace them for uh performance reasons. Okay. Yes sir. And just to piggyback on the security question, we do anticipate having multiple cameras on the site and it'll be monitored uh regularly. So, you know, we anticipate multiple layers of security around the facility. Did you say that fence was going to be electrified?

Well, in the sense that it's interconnected to the grid, so there are components that are hot. You know, they will be encased. So you'd have to get really crazy to get into them. I mean, you'd have to be trying, but there are components that are connected to the grid. Uh, and in that sense, are electrified. That brings up a really good point. One that I'm sorry, fence, the grid, the electric grid. I'm sorry. I thought I thought I thought the question was, was the fence electrified? Yeah.

No, no, no. The fence is not electrified. I apologize. I misunderstood. No, the the array itself is electrified. There are components of the array that obviously pose a safety issue, but the fence itself is just anticipated to be a chainlink fence with some attachments that are opaque to obscure more of the array from visibility from outside. Okay.

Yeah. The only thing I was going to add in regards to the conductors, all the conductors are fully uh uh within contained within uh conduit. The only uh the only components that are not within that are the interconnecting solar module panels that are tightly secured to the panel itself. Think of this insulated cabling uh suspended on suspended and I mean tightly attached on two foot centers and even on that run that goes to a uh a collector a DC collector th those uh have fuses at six foot centers so that's also additional uh protection as well.

They've made leaps and bounds as far as the organic material goes into a solar panel over the last 10 15 years. I mean, I'm in the construction business, so I see quite a bit of that, you know, and and it's it's amazing what that technology is doing. Do you foresee that the technology advancing to where it could cause problems that we're going to have later on? I mean, or is it uh is the stuff getting better to where it's not going to draw so much? It'll be safer. It would be, you know, even more, you know, environmentally friendly. I mean, tell me a story about it. Well, well, I wish I could. I'm a mechanical engineer, so I speak uh I speak I can address it. Okay.

Yeah. So, we're we're actually really proud of the components that are going into this array. And these solar modules uh that Chris is talking about are domestically manufactured by a company called First Solar out of Louisiana. They just opened a huge facility in New Iberia where INF for actually has an office. So, we have a really close relationship with that manufacturer and every model that they put off of their line, they are constantly innovating. Um and similarly, you know, there's been a push for domestic energy security reasons to grow solar manufacturing domestically. Um even, you know, with the current administration, they're still supportive of that because of energy security. So even though they're maybe a little more hostile to renewable energy than some of their predecessors, but anyway, the domestic energy security is a real issue. And so having this uh domestic manufacturing capability is being encouraged, you know, through tax incentives and stuff like that. But we actually think this first solar product is is an incredible product. One of the best solar modules you can get right now. Um maybe a little more expensive than something made overseas, but you know, it's worth it. Um but yeah, there's constant innovation and you know the the market price of this kind of technology is just constantly going down because they're producing more and more of it. So it's just like you know

nothing that will present a problem later. No sir. I would expect innovation and advancement in this industry at least for the next 10 or 15 years. Like we are we're just scraping the surface of the kind of innovation and just the material goes into making one that organic you know or that you know just what makes that the makeup of a solar panel is just amazing. I mean and that technology how it's how it's grown over the last several years is is remarkable. Yeah. I mean whether you like it or not the market has really driven solar to a place where it's just as cost effective as fossil fuels, right?

Um so you know some people aren't aware necessarily that that's the case, but you can build a solar array and maybe even some energy storage for something comparable to what you could build a gas fired generating plant. Now, um, so, you know, maybe there are some reasons to prefer that fuel source over a solar fuel source because it's more dispatchable. It's not intermittent and only generating when the sun shines. But in terms of the cost effectiveness of the technology, there's really no daylight at this point. Right. Okay. Well, I appreciate I think

what happens to those panels in 15 years when they need to be replaced. So they're recycled and they they would probably go back to first C solar and then they would take whatever material they can recycle out of the existing components, put them back into new components is my understanding. They have kind of a recycling program where you can take the old components, return them to them, and then they see what they can do with them. Anybody else have any questions at all?

I have a question. So, um, you said that I I see like article 5.8. It says the street fage frontage buffer, the trees and everything. I know a lot of times you see these solar panels and you're going somewhere and you just see nothing but a whole field of panels. So, you said you're going to have trees to buffer to kind of hide these things. There there's a requirement in y'all's code that we have trees on the frontage road at a certain interval and we intend to comply. We've discussed potentially seeking a variance with the board of adjustment because we have to bring irrigation to the site with landscaping. We hadn't necessarily anticipated doing that, but now that we've reviewed the code in detail, we understand we'd have to get a variance to avoid that investment. So, right now we're planning on doing that. We may seek a variance for that. Uh but we haven't made a final determination as to whether we would. But we certainly intend to, as I said, uh we contemplate a chain link fence, but we intend to put an opaque material that kind of ties to the fence that would obscure the visibility of the panels. And because the panels, the way they are ground mounted, they're not like a lot of the panels you may have seen where they're on a a platform and they can tilt like this. This is a completely different type of solar facility. So, you know, this is a groundmounted array where it's not sticking up like this. It's more flat, if that makes sense.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I I don't have any questions for you guys. I appreciate it very much. Um Gavin, I did have one for you in Victoria. Um just Thanks, guys. Appreciate I know we didn't have any comments from Richard City. I comfortable just from their perspective being able to get you know fireers into the location. for some reason it's needed.

We we didn't get any specific comments from fire. Um we did speak with um city corporation um that there are uh there is a a hydrant there and Richard did mention that that that was good for for now. Um but formal comments we we didn't receive any. we're under the impression that they would be able to to successfully access the site if a fire broke out and manage that. And I would I would imagine you guys building in these things, you've got some pretty good indication of I mean you want to protect your investment obviously. So um I'm I'm sure your side planning, your design side of it is is fine. I'm just curious from our perspective

more so than not. Yeah, what I can what I can say is uh the system is monitored 247 for output and other things. It's not possible to have a fire alarm system the way you would inside of a building. So that's not feasible. But with the uh 247 monitoring, we would see uh uh say take for instance my example of maybe a large object, you know, landed on the array. You you would uh the the ARC fault current would start tripping all uh and signal alarms on the control system, we would dispatch our service technicians

and then if they uh deem the situation unsafe, then they would call emergency personnel. But but it's not practical to have a fire alarm system on the Well, I I would imagine you guys having, you know, maintenance on these things, you would have, you know, a wide enough, you know, path to get all the way to the back of it if if there was a fire. Absolutely. Points of egret. That's one of the things that that Richard will bring up is can can we get a truck back there? So, that's something we need to we need to look at if we if we haven't already. I'm sure y'all have, but anyway. All right. Anybody else got any questions? All right.

I'd move for um approval of the application as submitted uh pending staff recommendations. Um would also like to you know ensure we get some kind of comment from Richard to some degree so we make sure that we you know the fire's got access at least proper access from their perspective. So okay second. All right, we have a motion and a second and and Cody, I'm not going to repeat all that, but I mean, you guys just heard the man. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve this development with those conditions. And u and no, not on this one.

No, if um No, we're just approving the uh the large scale development and anyway, all those in favor acknowledge by saying I. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carried. Okay. And if we have no other business, we're ajourned. Thank you guys. Appreciate you.