Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] Are you ready? Okay. All right. We'll get things rolling here. Uh, let's start off with commission member roll call. Drew here. Martin [clears throat] here. Christensen here.

Jansen here. Hughes. Brian here. All right. So, we'll move into approval of the current agenda. Has everybody had a chance to take a look at what we're doing? If so, do we have a motion to approve? I'll motion approve. We got a second.

Second by Kristen. Okay. That's approval of minutes from the previous meeting. Everybody get a chance to look that stuff over? approve the second three carries. Okay, new business. We're going to uh review recommendation of addition to chapter 27 ordinance concerning battery energy storage systems case 2025-02. So I had some uh sent in some last minute changes to it. So, I supplied you with this packet here that's going to that's a draft of the actual ordinance that will go to the board of supervisors. And within that, highlighted in red are some of the sections that we changed. And I will I'll start off tonight just letting you all know that currently we're going to hold off on anything related to nuclear. uh a nuclear ordinance was boilerplate piece of it that came out and there's a little bit of concern on it's nuclear power generating facilities but it also in there has nuclear storage and um I don't think we want to open up anything in this area for nuclear storage. So I want to take further look into this and talk with some people that actually have some expertise in that area before we approach anything with nuclear which I think we kind of discussed a little bit last time. The

nuclear one's not really a pressing issue and I don't think there's necessarily any lingering projects out there looking for sites in this area to where the battery side of it is something that could be coming down the line with the solar projects that we already have. um in Mills County, either under construction or potentially coming this way, there could definitely be battery sites tied to that. So, uh this is what kind of up here on the screen and the packets ahead of you that you have is what the ordinances look like when they go to the board of supervisors uh with your recommendations on there. And so the ordinance number right now isn't official, but it would be sometime in January when it would go there. So more than likely it' be kind of one of the first year. And you can see how I deleted out the sections 14, anything related to nuclear energy on there. This would add so chapter 27 currently goes up to section 12. And so this would be a new section that would be added on there which is the battery energy storage systems on there. And so uh be adopt the first two of these are just adopting into that section of what it is. And then uh section 1B actually gets into the language of what it would be. Start off with your statement of intent on there. uh adds in the definitions for what a battery storage system is. It's a technology that stores electrical energy and rechargeable batteries for later use. Uh this would be a conditional use. We are classifying it right now is that it would be a conditional use permit uh for these facilities and they would be in the AG agricultural zoning district, the AR agricultural residential zoning

district and industrial zoning district. This mirrors the way that the solar ordinance is currently set up. So in the areas that is solar is currently allowed on a commercial, we're only talking commercial scale, right? We're not talking about somebody's house. So this would be um those same districts that it is allowed in on there. What was [clears throat] pointed out when Davis found a was this NFPA 855 requirements related to this to these battery energy storage systems. So it came in on the setback section of that u these setbacks as described but then it also has to comply with the NFPA 855 requirements and this is more for the engineers who are drawn up these projects are going to show it for that part of it what their requirements are related to setbacks and buffers. So it'll be whichever is greater on there. NFP 85 says that you have to have a minimum of uh 500 ft from your rideways, then that's the requirement that it would rely on. The submittal documents is going to go this will m gets back into where we're mirroring some of what uh exact what the uh solar ordinance is on there. So we kind of keep these processes the same uh in the solar piece of it and in this piece of it. There is an approval committee that these applications come to before they even get to the zoning board of adjustments. Uh there's member of the zoning board the board of supervisors sit on it. Zoning administrators sits on it. conservation, engineering, emergency management are all in that group of people that review this before it even gets to where it's going to go to the conditional use permit application part of it. So, we review it and then it goes to the conditional goes to the zoning board of adjustment for conditional use permit approval.

Board of supervisors get to consider the decommissioning plan and agreement to that. All of these things have a life they all have a lifespan on them and it's yet to be seen on whether you know I've been through one wind power repowering uh and that was related to the wind farm around Walnut. They originally con started construction of those we they did their building ordinance in 2007. I think they went up probably 2008 2009 they were completed and then in 2015 they did a repowering of that project where some of these pieces come into place where they have to come back through those um pieces on there because it's more road damage. There's a lot. It's not near as many cement trucks because those things are already there, but there's a lot of road use that goes into a repower in place of reconstruction of that part of it. So, this goes uh once they get their conditional use permit application, then within that five years, they have to commence construction site. But we looked at at one point in time we went and looked back at changing this five years to try to shorten that time span on there. But it seems to be pretty industry specific that they get five years to start construction on those security fencing again 8 foot tall security fence matches all those pieces on the solar part of it. They'd have to do their soil erosion sediment control piece of it. um gets into the landscape buffering aspect of it, the lighting aspect of it, the noise pieces of it. The few of them had on their some of the other counties had 60 dBs in theirs. We're at 50 on ours. Think we're fine. Again, it's still mirroring what we have in other parts of our ordinance already. outdoor storage, making sure that they

do anything with endangered species or wetlands, which they would do in their phase one or phase [clears throat] two of developing the site. We control waste, all this again still mirrors what is in the solar part of it. So, the safety aspect of it is where we I just did the other major changes to this on there. So on section five, we altered what section I altered what section five said and uh went with what another county had in there. It's emergency operations plans shall be given to the system owner, local fire department, fire department or departments, whichever is applicable. Mills County Sheriff's Office and the Mills County Emergency Management Office. A copy of it should also be placed in an approved location on the site available to [clears throat] uh facility personnel, fire code officials and or emergency responders. The emergency operation plan shall include the following information. It's procedures on a safe shutdown, deenergizing, deenergizing or isolation of equipment systems under emergency uh conditions to reduce the risk of fire, electric shock, personal injuries andor for safe startup following sensation of the emergency conditions. B is going to be procedures for inspection and testing of associated alarms and interlock controls. C is going to be to follow the response alerts for the battery energizing systems. D is for the management system that could speify potentially dangerous conditions including shutting down equipment, summoning service and repair personnel provided that it's event of a system failure. Six is the other big section that we added in there. Now, this section in here is written to where it's on the developer of this site to not

only train but then also equip the firefighters with the equipment that they would need to to respond to this. So, this going to describe how the plan shall document and describe how fire safety systems and associated controls will function and be maintained and profit. The applicant is responsible for ensuring firefighters of this designated area are sight specifically trained and equipped in accordance with the current NFPA standards. So that's really us putting being able to put the ownership back on them that they're going to have to contribute to those because we are working with volunteer fire being response. I think they have some paid [clears throat] personnel on that one. The applicant will have one meeting annually or as needed with local fire departments, Mills County Sheriff's Office, Mills County Emergency Management Office to go over update related to their emergency to the emergency situation preparedness and procedures, any changes to the operation or maintenance manual, emergency operation procedures. I think that makes it a lot stronger section for us on that. get back into where we're getting back into where we're in the solar ordinance on this in the road section of it. They're going to identify the roads, all of it done in consultation with the metal scouting engineer. They would survey the roads ahead of time to be able to tell the condition of what the road is at the start of the project and then at the end of the project they have to get the roads back up to what they were or better. So, and that's all worked out ahead of time before they get a start. Um, yeah.

No [clears throat] reason I'm asking this because I know working with Paige County right now with farms, there anything in there that keeps Right now, it sounds like the windmill people are going to put fixing the roads back, putting them back the way they want them back to the county. I don't know if there I'm assuming they're going to pay for the material pay the county is actually do it. That's something that we want to maybe

there are counties we've talked with I'm sure Richard can attest to it. Um they when the windmills when they bring them in they they tear up some county roads and [clears throat] it's hard to take a windmill that long and make a 90 degree turn 20 22 foot box. So, this is the first time in all the ones that I've done over the years that they've actually had the county's going to do the work and the contractor's going to pay the county. Well, that's kind of what I'm gathering. I'm going to meet JD next week and I'm gonna ask you that because Mid American Energy did do that with the Walnut Wind Farm. They paid Ottawa County. Yeah. Yeah. To to redo the roads.

Yep. Because I guess the ones down like in Taylor County and stuff I work at, I don't recall them being involved in any of that. But it could depend on the engineers that are there if they want to if they have the confidence in the fact, no, let us do the work to get it back to the way we want it versus having to deal with the contractors. But that would definitely be a part of the road use maintenance agreement that they sign and negotiate between the engineer is when that we have I mean they'll have worry that they're

it's definitely pretty solid on that part. we just went through. So for the minam site that's out there by malware going on, the board had just gone through that and the engineer um hammering out a road use agreement with them and having to make sure the engineer is fine with it and then it goes to the board of supervisors get signed off on before any permits can be issued. It's kind of curious. Like I said, that just came up yesterday. I've heard they're good about fixing this. If you put in your wording, this assures us, this assures that they take care of their obligation, whether the county's going to do the labor and, you know, whatever. As long as it gets fixed and they pay.

Perfect. Could you go back to the fire departments quick? Yeah. I don't have a vote here, but just meeting with uh some local fire departments and cities today. Um when it says uh to the local fire department um there's a lot of times if Glennwood or Hastings or someone can't make the call, can you put all Milsandy fire departments in there? We can change that to all. If something like that did catch fire, it'd be it'd be everybody showing up too. Auburn doesn't have the show and the equipment. How can Glenn would show up and do it without equipment? Do you want it worded to where it says all or offered to all?

What if you need assistance from well county? Yeah. What if they what if they don't what if the con is trying to coordinate with five different departments and it doesn't work out for everybody? Do they have to have five different meetings to get everyone on on the same page or do they offer it on, you know, February 15th and that's the day if someone can come from your department is available to all departments rather than just strongly worded that they'll meet with all departments. I just want to make sure the equipment do you think that's mine's on the equipment side though? I guess that's my question is is make sure they have the equipment too. I know that we're working next to one in Gretina

and they actually have like the water cannon already set there that the hose just hooks to and goes to. Now, I'm sure that's hydrants and all that stuff there. Um, but I think some of them are fairly prepared for it as far as that goes. I I guess this is going back to the fire safety Johnson County's ordinance. They have a second sentence there. At minimum the plan shall comply with NFPA 855 standard for installation of stationary energy storage systems. So that you know because right now we don't really have we have the 855 you know standards for the setbacks but not for the whole you know NFPA standard for that like I guess Johnson County has that second sentence there that would

that would ensure we have stuff like the thermal runaway the battery monitoring and then you know fire suppression systems kind of like you said the automated stuff. So Ideally, if we have the safety precautions in place, you know, um, in compliance with NFPA 855, you know, it should get shut down before a fire occurs. That'd be the best case scenario. We, like I say, Johnson County had that second sense there and that would that would make sure the whole project is in compliance with NFPA 855, not just the setbacks. So that was where my concern was. So, I was reading it's 144 pages of that that booklet, NFPA 855. So, I was skimming through it there, but they have stuff for thermal runaway, battery management, you know, monitoring of the batteries. They watch the temperature. If they get hot, it shuts down the system. They've got automated fire suppression, foam, water, whatever. And that's for the walk-in um systems, too. So, these like storage containers, you know, all those that have a um fire suppression system within them. So each individual container is protected and so I think we should try and adopt something like that be very strict with it. The best case scenario is we don't need the fire departments to show up. We just prevent it from happening in the first place.

Right. So I would say our biggest problem is no water. Yeah. They're going to be they're going to be trucking water. Well, [clears throat] you said something about foam that that like there could be some sort of

Yeah. So, yeah, the the NFPA, they have different rules like the rural one out there. It may not it may not be required to have an automated system at that site specifically. So, they have different rules for like say we're talking about ones that are for like uh electric car charging like a a parking lot or something. So those have different standards compared to like a rural battery energy storage system. So I don't know if rural water is required for something that's you know out there in the eastern side of the county. Like I say that's that's up to the NFPA standards. I don't I don't standard listed in there. What's good is a lot of the times the engineers who are designing them already to see that and then they'll point out to us where in the NFPA that they're either required or not required to have it.

Okay. So it helps having that language in there and that's what I so adding that sentence at the end of our at the end of section six where it ends with improper working conditions and that period there we add that secondary sentence that says at a minimum the plan shall comply with NFPA 855 standards for installation of stationary energy storage systems. So then that will trigger the engineers on the projects to serve. That's what that's what Johnson County has in there. So that's just about referencing here.

Yeah, I guess Alam Key, they're about 14,000 people as well. Alam Key had a similar ordinance and then Lynn County also had an ordinance for Bees. Al McKe is where this one came from. Okay. I guess see I was looking at them. That second sentence there is not in Alam Keys ordinances, but it's in Johnson counties, but they're very similar. Yes, like I said, you mentioned Johnson County. Alam Keys is the same size as us and they have the same kind of requirements. I think it should be for every county has one regardless of size. Agreed. So, is everybody okay with that addition of that third?

[clears throat]

So then again, it gets back into that language that is already in Mills County uh code in relation to the roads, in relation to the decommissioning and reclamation plans for this Um [snorts] decommissioning plan again that the decommissioning plan is another thing that we had just gone through with on the solar project portion of that. So it does get pretty technical in there about you know having the financial security that's tied with it. Every five years they go through with an independent engineer to make sure that they reestimate all the costs with that, certify that back to the county, adjust what they have in financial security uh with us at that time. And then the ceasing of operations within 90 days, they notify us and they start system completely, you know, back bringing the ground back. other than in the case of a catastrophic patch hole aspects to decide.

Is there anything in there or does there need to be anything in there with the roads about maintenance and keeping them in working order during the during the process? Looks like I was thinking something in there. Looks like county engineer goes out there.

Well, that's after construction.

We talking road preparation damage. Any road preparation in sounds like it's ongoing. But so far I feel like this section worked out fairly well. We'll see how at the end of I guess we there may be some adjustments at some at the conclusion of the solar project that's going on out there. I think would be the time where Jake and I would get together and say and I you know kind of ask him did it work well? Is there anything that you felt like didn't work well and is then kind of break it down and see if there's anything that we can adjust accordance? But it seemed that the process of getting to where it was through the negot I think they spent 60 days back and forth negotiating with Jake on what that was going to look like. But

sometimes Think going on from that I mean you can see where I deleted out all the section aspects of this section 1 C then gets into where we have to adjust and battery energy storage systems the matrix the 4.0 on the use matrix table of that for conditional use in those different districts. Then it's just your general ordinance language, severability of it, repeal of any conflicting ordinances, [clears throat] which there are none on there, and then the effective dates. And then these dates will all be determined in accordance with whenever it goes before the board of supervisors and the meetings that it would take with them. That's really all I have for you on this one. Anybody has any other questions or comments on it?

Fire and [clears throat] these days. Yeah,

really. There's not much more. Uh public comment my concern fire department. you know, if this comes about within say the next three to five years, what kind of fire system fire departments will we have? You know, right now Glenda basically is our number one when we have all the other movement setting around. Are they going to have people trained in every one of the fire departments to handle this? Does Glenwood can do it? And then the second thing is where do we get the water? Do we can we recommend that they dig a big enough well to provide water for this suppression? I mean, can you actually put it out? That's that's one of the questions that hasn't been answered yet. I mean, has it been is does anybody know of any other places where there's been fires and stuff that's occurred? What did they use? a few tests.

I was reading some stuff they had reignition up to seven days later. So, I mean, when these lithium batteries catch fire, it's you can't put them out almost. That's why, you know, having this NFPA 855, having the automated stuff and the battery monitoring, we can have the safety precautions in place to where it doesn't catch fire and it shuts the system down. I think that's our best bet. But to have, like you say, to have the automated fire suppression, they need water out there. So, that's kind of a hurdle there. would have to jump through but I don't know and on the on which fire departments that's we [clears throat] we're going to change local to all fire departments

so because if it would be with all the jurisdictional sharing that they have if something were to happen

yeah it can't be much like it's like even storage systems walls and the cannons there. So, it's really that's why having that 855 that kind of checks a lot of boxes hopefully next. Well, I have a question on that same section where it references that the applicant will have one meeting annually. So, who monitors to make sure that that happens and what are the consequences if they don't? And then it says or as needed, who determines the need and is this written such that the sheriff's department or emergency management or can be the ones who would call the as needed if it's more than once a year. So your emergency management folks take that part of it over certain they have a good recordkeeping system for that aspect of it. And as far as what happens, so if they weren't say they did not hold one, then it's a violation of the county infraction. So it starts off your first day $750 and it's $1,000 every day after that.

But the county is monitoring to schedule the meeting. So, it's just if the applicant doesn't show up, well, the applicant's going to be the one driving the meeting. Okay? So, they're responsible for driving the meeting and then because they're going to be the ones training you on their site. Okay? It's their site, their emergency response plan. They're telling you the changes that they've made at that time and going through walking you through those things. Okay. So, or as needed is the or as needed um the applicant who's making that determination or is it somebody it could be the within the county operations that would say hey we heard this was changed and I know we just had an annual meeting but now we're concerned about this.

Exactly. So it could be your applicant coming up and saying, "Hey, we sell our annual meeting, but we just spoke." Maybe, you know, something drove a change in their organization. So we're going to hold another meeting because we just had this. It could be the emergency management folks calling a meeting as one of the fire departments came to and said, "Hey, we've heard this is going on on site. We need to get everybody together to talk about this." And then emergency management call to show up to that meeting for that and discuss whatever is going on. Great. Very discussion. All right. So, we'll move to board action. So, we would probably recommend for a recommendation,

right? It' be a recommendation for the board of supervisors. Yeah. either is either approved or it's not approved.

We have recommendation for recommendation. Somebody somebody got that John does. I'll second my parliament. All those in favor?

Yeah. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same time. Motion carries. I think that's all the business I have for you for tonight. Other M. Um, so just for other business, we have that on there that the next meeting is January 13, 2026, if you can all believe that.

Nope, I cannot. And I'll have a calendar for you for the rest of the year at that meeting. of January.

Probably right after you go back to I think I go back to 16. I just noticed I got three convention starting the day after my start tomorrow. No, the 16th.

All right stuff. Uh, do we have any [clears throat] through all the new business, right? U January 13th. Does anybody want to make a motion for I'll make a motion. Motion made louder. Oh, Joe Martin said that. Joe Martin said that. [clears throat] Second by P.