Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Um, let's make sure Kevin, we're gonna go ahead and You're good.

She's so official. I love it. There have been meetings when we wish we'd had one.

I don't think that'll be the case tonight, but I'd like to call our town hall meeting to order. We want to welcome you all. Um, I was afraid maybe the rain was going to keep a few people away and maybe it has or or maybe we did a good job on the regulations. I I hope it's the latter. But anyway, [Laughter] The purpose of the town hall meeting is to gather information from the public to help the commission formulate recommendations in order to ensure a fair and orderly meeting where everyone can participate. The commission requests that you act respectfully to everyone in attendance and follow the meeting procedures. Speakers must meet speak from the podium and write and state their name for the record. Uh second comments will not be permitted until every person has had the opportunity to speak for the first time and comment should be concise not unnecessarily repetitive. The chairperson reserves the right to establish a time limit of four minutes per speaker. The designation of a spokesperson for group sharing a common point of view is encouraged. Uh before we start the roll call, I'd just like to say we want to keep it a conversation this evening and we want to hear what you think u the commission and the department have done right as well as wrong uh in these regulations.

Do you want to set a time limit or based on the number of attendees? Yes, we we will set the time limit four minutes. Four minutes. Dan Brian here. Myron mine. Chad Ghart here. Janette Johnson here. Rosa Kasos here. Terry Robinson with four members present. There is a quum. Thank you.

All right. We will begin the discussion. Um whoever would like to start speaking. I'll do a little introduction first. Yeah. Um, just to kind of get us to where we're at today.

Um, as you are aware, we're here today for a town hall on solar regulations. Um, if you recall, we've been working on this for um, very more intensely the last year, although this topic of solar regulations has really been on our minds and on our agendas for the last couple of years. Um we started off in June of 20 actually it's been several years June of 22 we considered um two small solar farms and at that point it was um brought up that it would be helpful to have some regulations to guide us if and when additional solar farms came in front of us. Um uh at some point after that there was discussion of a moratorum um on wind and solar and as that proceeded forward we had some speakers come in and talk to us about the pros and the cons of both wind and wind and solar. Uh we decided that the topics are while similar quite different. And so we separated them into two different categories and did move forward with a ban on wind which was uh considered here by the planning commission and then by the board of county commissioners in 2024. Yeah, just a little over a year ago. And at the same time we then moved forward with a moratorum on solar. Um I think that everybody felt that we weren't ready to say that we didn't want solar and so we wanted to have some additional time to consider that. And then even after that moratorum went into place there has been um you know we've had meetings and discussions about what it looks like for Shaunie County and at this point we have decided or initially decided that it seems as though we are interested in you know considering in

having regulations that allow for solar but wanting to you know limit that but at the same time allow for some flexibility. ility um and not ownorously overregulate and not allow for that flexibility if and when a topic does come in front of us. Um also to this day we don't have any pending applications for solar farms. Um you know occasionally we'll get an inquiry about where we're at with things but we don't have anything pending at this point in time. So what you have in front of you um as you recall are the draft regulations that we've discussed at various meetings. Um just so the audience here is aware we have had discussions on these at different work sessions throughout our monthly meetings. We've made recommendations. We've made changes. Um I took those and put them all together. I created what I thought was what you wanted and you guys looked at those and discussed them and then we got to the point where the you as the planning commission said okay I think that we're ready to move this forward and have some some topics and discussion um on these regulations as a whole. Um we did after that send it out to various entities, fire districts, um cities, gave them the opportunity to look at it and see if they had comments or questions. I have received some feedback on the regulations from several and so at some point we'll want to talk about those and see if there are additional changes that we need to make to the regulations. But we felt like the next step should probably be a town hall meeting where we allowed the public to come talk to us and tell us what they thought about it. I don't want to spend a lot of time changing things and then have someone say something revolutionary that you

want to consider and then have to change them again. So, let's, you know, have the the public tell us what we think, what they think. Um, give some input, ask questions. As Janette said, I want this to be formal but informal. I want to allow for questions and discussion. Don't feel like this is like a public hearing where they're not allowed to ask you a question and you're not allowed to respond. Um and and vice versa. If you have a question for any of them, please feel free to ask that. Um I think that with the size of the group, we have some flexibility with how we handle things. Um and you know, let's let's have a a good amount of discussion so that we feel like we've had some consideration. So, um, we will pull up the regulations on the screen so that we can see them. If anybody wants to pinpoint something in particular, we can pull that specific, uh, regulation up. Is there or are there any questions from the planning commission for me or

Okay. So, if you want to I think we're open for comments. Ready to go. So, um, anyone would like to some comments. I don't know if that's the right one.

Yes, make sure and sign in. There are sheets up there. So, the word document may not be You're okay. I'm trying to still pull up the regulations. I want to make sure that I had the most recent copy up. And I do have big red draft written across it, so excuse that, but

Okay. I'm not related to Janette. I'm Richard Johnson. Okay.

Okay. My name is Richard Johnson. I live 3536 Hudson Road, Silver Lake, Kansas. It's been a year since the last meeting on solar and we have learned a lot. August 19th, 2025, USDA Secretary Rollins blocked taxes, tax dollars for solar, deemed it unreliable and waste of land. 10 states have followed. In 2025, 22 solar companies have filed for bankruptcy. August 1st of 2025, EverGy got approved for two cast gen two gas electric generators. Apparently, solar and wind isn't working like they promised. They tell us a maximum potential of energy that can be created, but they omit the part about dependability on the weather. Once the heat on solar panels goes above 77° F, the efficiency decreases and the hotter it gets. Um, this creates a a problem with voltage. September 26th of 2025, discussions have already indicated that nuclear plants are in the future. Now, this is a yearly thing, but in solar, it is dependent on the weather. And according to the weather and science facts, 40 to 70% of Kansas skies are partly cloudy. Topa showed 40% of clouds. We had a lot of days hotter than 77 degrees with humidity averaging over 67%. Citizens have learned the negative side of solar. This year, residents have blocked a huge site in Missouri and Jackson County, Kansas is still fighting a proposed 8 square mile solar farm. Solar propaganda is careful about not telling you how many square miles of land is covered by solar farms. They prefer to mention the potential out the potential output of electricity through megawws and acres. Two years ago, I did some math. It takes 1 to five acres to produce a megawatt with the new panels.

Older panels were 5 to 10 acres. Older far older solar farms are not replacing panels with new product. I used five acres and then total the number of megawatts produced by the major farm solar farms from Kansas west. My math showed over a thousand square miles of land covered by solar panels. Um solar farms uh disrupt the habitat. 50,000 acre solar farm in California desert has killed the ecosystem. I have a print out here I can give you. In 2025, California's $2.2 million farm shut down. Um they had brownouts from the getgo when they started that and then they had to add more money to a nuclear plant in California to take up the the load. Um what's seldom mentioned is the aquatic runoff. Consider the size of the storm drains it takes to handle the water that runs off gauge center parking lot in the bowling alley. You can drive through that drain drainage thing underneath the ground there. I've done it. Not didn't drive. I took a bicycle. Um but that's a lot of water runoff that we have to be considered. And if you have uh areas that have been compromised in the solar farms that goes into the ground and that can leech into waterways. Um where am I at? Okay. Solar panels have damaged. Like I said, they bleed a lot of toxic substances. I mentioned heat and humidity earlier. The two main causes of solar farm fires is poor maintenance and humidity. Here is a picture. I have a picture here of a solar farm that's just over the hill from me. It's 20 acres. I call it a solar uh tinder factory. If you look at it, grass is growing up all around it. It's grass is touching the solar panels and that's showing that there's no maintenance. And I'm I'm surprised that there's any electricity coming from

there. We only see the production of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Things to consider. Lightning strikes remove CO2 and methane gas from the air. It makes it time. Wow. Okay. All right. You can you can allow additional time. How much more do you have to say since we have two minutes for 30 seconds? Okay.

Okay. I'll look at corn. We spent 95.1 million acres of corn. Corn absorbs 11 tons of CO2 per acre. We did the same thing with soybeans, 83.4 million acres. Okay. Over 2 to 4,000 pounds of CO2 is removed from the air by these plants. Wheat, 38.5 million acres and it it takes 16,000 pounds from the air. So all this stuff we're talking about greenhouse gases, they Don't ever talk about park or nature absorbs it. The other problem that we have is massive rains in California, Texas, Arizona, Texas especially. We can look at Dubai and we look at Abu Dhabi major major storms and this has been caused by the fact that these big heat panels from these massive solar farms is affecting our weather and I have document here that I can link you that shows you and they're using a Sahara as an example. But thank you for your time and thank you for the extension. I appreciate that.

Can I ask a question?

Rosa has a question for you, Mr. Johnson. I have a question. Um, you mentioned that there was a solar panel over near your um near your property. Yes. Where? I'm at 35th in Huffman. Okay. Well, I'm 35 36 If you go to 35th and you turn and you go east, but you can I have a picture of it and anyone know how big that area?

I just measured it. It's like 12 acres. No, the it wasn't quite that. I think it was an 11 acre dividing it between Auburn Road. Yeah, the Auburn Road one was 14 or 15 acres and then probably 20 acres and there's like there's like 11 acres of solar Okay, thank you so much. Oh yeah, that's what I get for doing dishes

growing up tall. Oh, let me actually comment to that. Mr. Johnson, if you feel like there are maintenance issues that need to be addressed with the the existing solar farm with grass, we don't go out and see inspections, but send us a message on that and we will follow up and have someone drive by and see if there's maintenance that needs to be done because that should fall underneath their conditional use permit. I mean, yeah, I was here when that was approved and I never contact you. It's been that way all summer. Okay. Yeah. Send us an email and we can send somebody out to check it out.

Okay. My name is Vicky and I'm the co-chair of the of Topeka Shi County Climate Committee. The League adopted a position on climate and energy use in April 2024 which states in part the league supports the development of energy sources which allow for the reduction of the use of fossil fuels. We would like to thank the planning commission for their work in developing the draft solar energy system regulations and for providing a forum for public input. We do however find that several of the proposed regulations will discourage the development of larger scale solar installations in Shauny County. These restrictions include limiting projects to 240 acres, requiring setbacks of 500 ft, and prohibitation prohibitations on battery storage. Large scale solar projects at a minimum require approximately a thousand acres. The Douglas County project uh they permit for,000 acres. I think the project that and Johnson County allows for up to 2,000 papers. Johnson County regulations seem set to attract data center proposals and to take advantage

of cost savings to all classes of rateayers through the recently proposed Kansas Corporation Commission clean energy choice writer solar ind. developers will find the proposed 500 foot setback restriction so burdensome. It will take Shane County out of the competition for future development. It also potentially restricts land owner choices regarding property rights. No large scale solar institution installations will be built in an area which prohibits onsite battery storage. Although we recognize the potential impact on rural fire districts. The planning commission should consider the continual advancement in battery storage safety. In addition through the conditional use and permitting process, the condition may require the developer to be responsible for fire district training uh the purchase of appropriate equipment to fight potential battery and emergency management cost sharing arrangements with the county. The League of Women Voters of Top Shani County requests the planning commission consider increasing the size of the projects to no less than a th000 acres, decreasing the setback requirements to no more than 100 ft and reconsider the emergency management needs relative to battery storage. Thank you for your time and for your service on

have any questions or comments? Vicki, sorry Vicki, how many uh how many people do you represent the League of Tik About 215 members at this point? Thank you.

I would also say that we discussed the battery storage part of it. um quite a bit and we decided that at this stage until Shaunie County has a broader discussion about battery storage that we wanted to keep that um eliminated from the the solar farm regulations. Um, we felt like for now this would allow solar to move forward and um, we could then look at battery storage as a whole and then come back and amend it if we decided that battery storage was appropriate for Shaunie County. Um, you know, independent standalone battery storage is maybe even more popular than battery storage on a solar farm. I I don't know the answer to that but um you know it it in and of itself has a need for regulations or consideration because there are a lot of things to consider with battery storage. So that was something that we did discuss.

So and I'm I'm going to assume that you recognize that that does limit large scale solar development to an area near distribution lines. Correct. Correct. further. Correct.

We also have a provision in here that the governing body the board of county commissioners can override any of these regulations. If somebody came and wanted something that was 500 acres, you know, they would have that ability to

see. Yes. I think kind of to that end though, like no matter how you regulate then it has the potential to prevent someone from wanting to re and again I'm going to point out that nobody has reached out to us and so we're not trying to set a regulation. You know, some counties are in a scenario where they're trying to create regulations under the pressure of a project that's in front of them, and we don't have that pressure. Although, we do get contacted all the time and asked questions. So, I don't think that that's the case. I don't think that someone would look at our regulations and just say, "We're not going to consider it." They they typically still reach out and ask us those those questions. Um but I also think that if you are going to take that attitude is not the right word but if we take that perspective then really we shouldn't regulate them at all because any limitation is going to prevent someone from contacting us. I think we have to do what's best for Shauny County in terms of the land and what we've got and how we can work it and then with the provisions of allowing the governing body to consider other options if the right topic came in front of us then I think that that gives us some flexibility.

Hi my name is Don Taylor. [Music] Um, I'm a licensed professional engineer. For 30 years, I worked in the system planning department at the company formerly known as Kansas Power and Light. And in the following eight years, I worked in transmission operations. Um, some of the comments have already been made. I'm not going to repeat them. Um, one of the things, and it's on page two, number six, is the thing that says all on-site communications, power collection, yada yada yada, will be underground utility or power lines or transmissions are permitted only within public rights of way or easements. No, public rights of way are things like roads. In a company like a utility, they have private rights of way. You buy them and you get to go use them. And so like if you wanted to connect a 240 acre wind farm to an Evergy line, it's not going to go on any distribution line. It will have to be a transmission line. And that's going to be a private right of way that you're going to be connecting to. And inside my project area, it's all fair game. I can build wires to go and get connected to it. So number six is problematic. Are you speaking specifically to the right of way part or just the easements?

The vec that it says within public rights of way or easements, right? And so easements would consider any type of easement. If there was um agreements with the land owners, they could enter into those easements, but the the concept being the overhead transmission lines or electrical poles need to be within public rights of way. Um, anything within an easement would have to be duly recorded and noted and agreed upon by the owners of that that land. If the land is leased, if I buy 240 acres, there's no lease involved. I'm free to do whatever I want.

Correct. But utility power so utility and power lines and transmission lines what we're the differentiation would be you can have the collection lines the interconnections within a project area those can be installed underground anywhere what we're talking about with the transmission lines would be those lines that are connecting them to the the the grid or the substation. So those would have to be within rights of way or easements to allow those to happen. There's a difference between the the transmission lines versus other sorts of connection lines.

Our I guess our distinction is between a public right of way, which I consider like roads. Those are public rights of or a private right of way like what a usual transmission line runs down. Right. So the ones that are in the the public rights of way can be above ground. All others would need to be underground.

I understand. Okay. It's problematic because sooner or later you're going to have to come up out of the ground to get to whatever it is you're going to connect to. Um, number nine essentially says you can't keep spare parts on the site. Um, you know, there are spare parts on substation sites all over the place. It's kind of like one fails, you go out, replace the panel, take the other one, it goes back to the manufacturer or something. That looks problematic. There are spare parts available that are readily available and it should be to have my little room with a stash of extra panels hooked in there. So, the number nine that essentially says you can't keep spare parts looks problematic. On page three, it says executed power purchase agreement or interconnection agreement. If you have a utility scale generating project, there is only one place you're going to go to get an interconnection agreement and that is the Southwest Power Group in Little Rock, Arkansas by definition under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission because it will be so big. you're going to be have like 100 megawatts in 240 acres. And so some there there might be some confusion on how those agreements those legal agreements are going to work, but I'm going to tell you Southwest Power Pool is going to be the one and only company that determines whether or not you can build it and connect it in a generation interconnection process. What about um like we have our free state electric company here that's separate has their own grid that they like so they have the two solar farms that they've connected to their specific grid. Um so are you

saying that other types of grids or substations or providers like we we're only looking at the the powerful

the cooperatives live in a kind of a different world. Um Not knowing how big those little wind farms are, they may have hooked it into a 34 and a half KV transmission line. For them, that's a transmission line, but they don't have like 115 KV transmission lines like ever the people out west at Sunflower. So, it's a different model for them. How would you change the wording on which piece? This last

execut the power purchase agreement.

I'm not real sure at this point. I know that you would have to have an agreement with somebody to take the power unless I am a company that built this wind farm and I'm only going to sell it into the open market which in fact is run by Southwest Power Pool in a 14 state area. You have a power generation and you want to offer it into the market for anybody to buy it. There is a process to just say here's my power. I'm going to this price and if they take it, it gets dispatched. I'll have to think on how to modify that to make it look right. But um generation doesn't just get to go and pump power into the grid. Southwest power.

Well, I guess the the my question would be so if you I mean what is kind of the alternative if you aren't connecting I mean you can have battery storage but even if you have battery At some point that has to connect somewhere

or if you So what's the alternative to having a power purchase agreement or inter connection agreement if it's not going into the grid? Where else would it be going? Well, a power purchase agreement ends up and I'm going to pick on somebody that maybe everybody here knows about over in downtown Lawrence is a hydro plant and there is a power purchase agreement for all the electricity from Bowers sock mills and power to go to Unified Government City of Kansas City Kansas Board of Public Utilities. They have a power purchase agreement to take the power that they generate in Lawrence and it magically gets into the grid and they have a dedicated distribution line that goes to the substation there at mass at six street at the end of the bridge and that power gets routed and BPU buys it power sock sells it. Those are how the power purchase agreements work and that that stands outside of the integrated market.

Well, so I guess I guess then my question is is how does Why would we need to change the language here? Because we're not saying that it has to be with the grid. So if there is a situation where a solar farm is being requested, but yet whatever reason there's a a place to connect it and have a power purchase agreement with unified government, like this doesn't limit who that agreement is. I agree that in most scenarios it's going to be with the Southwest power pool and that's kind of the anticipation that we have in looking at this but it doesn't really limit it. So I'd be I mean if you have other suggestions or

it and or and if our purchase agreement takes things and moves them aside because now I have a bilateral agreement. I'm going to produce it. You're going to buy it. We agree on the price. Nobody else gets involved. Right. I I guess I still don't understand where it's wrong.

Yeah. I mean, if you have recommended language of how it should be would be better, we're you know, send that along to us and we'll look at it and consider it. I just I guess I haven't heard yet why this is wrong. And you know, we take these languages, we look at other regulations that have been crafted and utilized, and it's really quite frequent that you see language similar to this. So, I'm not saying that you're not correct. I would just be intrigued in knowing what it is that you are thinking. So, large scale installations, Southwest Power is going to be involved.

You are going to ask a question? No, I just would suggest that if you think on it and you come up with something, you let us know. I will. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that care to make a comment? Hi, I'm Diane Den and first of all, I just wanted to thank you for prohibiting battery storage. If you have a question about that, you might want to look up Moss Landing in California where the battery storage caught on fire and burned for a long time, weeks, and um contaminated a lot of the area. Uh I read one article where it said 27 miles from that uh from that battery storage was actually where it all contaminated. People had to get out of their houses um could stay there. So, uh and the battery storage do have quite a quite a reputation for catching on fire. So, we certainly don't want that here in our county. So, I'm going to skip around just a little bit. I'd like to read you just a really quick um quote here. says, "Fire is a major hidden danger for solar farms. Fire risks cannot be totally engineered out as a result of fire, wind, and hail potential exposures. Insurance companies will likely start increasing rates or just dropping

insurance for properties boarding or bordering or near solar fields." And that entire statement came from the insurance business magazine.com riskmanagement news Gabriel of Fire Trace International. Uh and it was published September 8th of 2022. So um fire is a concern. Um just a little bit of information. I was looking at the setbacks and um I was also looking at the um Jackson County um proposed regulations. Um on uh the Shauny County, it shows a 500 foot set back from any existing uh residents. Jackson County shows 1,320 ft, which is a quarter of a mile. And I've heard that a mile or more is much more safe. And then um from the nonparticipating property line um Shing County shows 50 foot and um Jackson County has a minimum of 300 foot. So what a concern is um you know if we had a fire, how would you feel if you if the fire was a blazing fire that was really kind of in a thermal runway type of situation where it was just going and going and going. I I would feel very uncomfortable living that close either through my property line or my residence. I mean

that fire could travel very very quickly and um it would be be a real concern. So um another thing that you might want to think about I'm sorry can I be just real quick here? You have 30 seconds.

Okay. Um to have a cash deposit for damages to neighbors like say for fire or um say maybe u damage from a storm that blows things over onto neighboring property. Um, and then just another uh quote here on Truth Social. U August 15th of 2025, our President Donald J. Trump said that wind and solar are the biggest scam of the century. So, I'm hoping that you all to consider either continator or putting a ban on it at this time. So I thank you very much for listening. Anyone else have a question or comment to make? It's a simple website address.

Um, if you want to send us emails to planning snus. Yeah, that's our our general email address. planning at S as in Sam N as in Nancy C as in cat O as in Oscar us any comments or questions from you guys

I want to thank you guys I like the dialogue Absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you all for coming.

Yeah. So, I what I will say is I I mentioned that there had been some proposed concerns or changes from various entities. A couple of those I'll point out. Um, from our public works department, they had inquired or asked that I more specifically state what the flood plane means. Um, I did put in there the special hazard special flood hazard area. Um, including all mapped flood plane floodway in Shauny County. We have several layer several several divisions of what flood plane is. One of those is the 0.2% 2% chance, which is like really quite non-existent to have that area flood. Um, we allow buildings to go up in that area. We don't consider that a restriction under our um flood plane regulations. And so, buildings can go up, homes can go up in that area. And so, in my mind, that 2% chance area would be allowed to have solar. Uh, I'm looking more at the the more restricted blue, purple, AE, um, and other zones. And so,

what color is the point two on that map?

Gray is what we show. Um, so we show blue really encompasses all the flood plane, no matter if what division it falls under. Gray then falls out of that and is the the lowest side. Purple is the flood way which is the most restricted. Um, also our flood plane maps will be changing in the next few years. Uh, they've got proposed changes out there already, but I don't anticipate that those will be put into place for a while. And so I don't want to specify areas. I just, you know, I can maybe a little more specifically list the zones. So I can do that. Um, one of the fire districts was concerned about um, having enough setback between panels that they could get an apparatus in between. And so I will look at what specifically he recommended and we may have to talk with multiple fire districts to see if it's all pretty similar. But what they were concerned about was if there was a fire, whether or not they would be able to get their trucks in in between the solar panel rows.

Uh Shauny Heights.

Yeah. Um one of the other comments came from a fire district. They were concerned about the state law that grants an exemption for property tax. um in particular each so our fire districts are all their own taxing district their own tax entity and so they receive their funding from property tax and if that's been waved then they don't receive uh that tax money to support their department and his concern was that these could be scenarios where they would be providing pretty significant services to a property and to an owner who's not paying any taxes. um our payment in lie of taxes um line item addresses that we don't really want to put a specific requirement of how much it is or when it has to be paid if it has to be paid. I think the way that we have it in there is really better in the grand scheme of things because it should be looked at on a case- by case basis. And so I'll look at that language again just to make sure that we don't need to enhance it a little bit more to make sure that it's recognized that while we we do think that pilots are a good idea um to help support those it may have to consider what taxing entities and how they may be harmed specifically

direct pilot at more than one two more than one taxity. Well, so it doesn't here. We don't specify. And so what we have to recognize is that a pilot shouldn't come to just Shaunie County. It needs to go to those different taxing entities. So we should identify that there are other taxing entities and that any pilot needs to go to each of the ones in that area. Yeah. Um I've heard both ways. You know, 240 acres is too many acres. they want to keep it smaller. Um, then obviously we hear people say that they would like it bigger. So I, you know, I think that we chose the 200, well you guys chose, I didn't choose, but 240 acres for a specific purpose. Um, and then again pointing out the fact that there is the clause that allows the board of county commissioners to make some changes to that if necessary or if requested. I feel like those were the main topics that came up, but um so next steps uh I will probably want to make a few changes based on things that we've heard and have you guys consider that at our public hearing. I I think that the the draft as it is is it is what it is. I think that the next time you guys consider this needs to be at a public hearing. Um, what I'm anticipating, we do have some meetings scheduled for November that are already going to be kind of heavy and so I don't think that we should do it in November.

Do we have anything tenatively scheduled for December yet? Not yet, but I'm expecting that we're we're going to get one. Our deadline for the December meeting is not for a couple of weeks yet. And so, um, Harim has already been working with someone who she thinks will file. I was thinking maybe December, but maybe not until January um to go ahead and do a public hearing for the solar regulations. We don't really, you know, obviously we did it at Great Overland Station for the wind solar. I don't know what kind of response we would have in terms of the public showing up. Um we may just Will that be advertised any different than this was?

Yes, absolutely. So, a public hearing for regulations has to be published in the paper. Um, I would do some media work probably. Yeah. And posting it on the website sending out, we sent out an email to everybody who had requested notification about solar. Um, we would do that again. We did not publish it in the paper just because, you know, we're not required to and we felt like we were reaching out to the people who were really interested in in communicating and we knew that people were going to be here are in communication with other people who are interested and so that you know the word would get around.

One thing I am curious about and I don't know we just ask our own insurance people but to find out if properties that are close to uh to the solar panels do the properties get dropped from their insurance how I I would be curious about that. So yeah I don't know. Okay. Yeah, if you want to reach out to anybody who would like to reach out to their insurance and ask that question. I'm sure each insurance agent is going to be a little bit different, but if that's going to make an effect on the cost. Yeah. Right. If a larger if if if a specific setback is helps. Okay.

I will check that out because that could be a problem. Yeah. Quick question back on comment about maintenance on there. Are there already other regulations like in terms of maintaining the property, keeping it, keeping it well? We need to put that um here.

So, we could add something about maintaining and keeping it mowed. Part of it with the solar farms is that they're request requested to have native grasses and flowers and such to go on those properties, which then in essence means that they're not going out and mowing them and maintaining them. If it's creating sight distance issues or if it's inviting vermin, I think that we can look at it. We do have nuisance regulations in regards to tall grass, but it only applies to parcels under

Yeah. a certain size. So, I don't know that there really needs to be because again, typically you're wanting to encourage wildlife and flowers and grasses to grow as long as it's not just turning into a big weed patch. So, which is why I suggested that he reach out and have us look at that. I don't remember. I'd have to look back at our regulations or the the solar farm that we approved whether there's anything specific in there about the maintenance. Maybe there's some middle ground between the native grass but also lowering the fire risk. I mean the grass is allowed to grow around there and there is a fire.

Okay. And can you remind me um when you did have the larger meeting and you had meteorologist come in, was that just for solar? Just wind. The meteorologist was looking specifically at how wind turbines affect uh I we haven't had he his focus was on wind. We haven't had anybody bring up the topic of how solar panels could impact weather or radar. I think his focus was on the radar.

Yeah. Yep. That's exactly he's wanting to be able to see tornadoes coming through and the way that the wind turbines can spin, it can create these false images or hide the images is what he was finding. So there wasn't any any large discussion then on the solar panels with in cause and effect with weather at that time. Okay. That was like a long time ago. So, I'm glad you remember because I certainly could not. So, is that something that we should consider? I mean that we would want someone to come in or No,

if I mean I think that the the problem is is is there someone who has enough information and research to be able to identify that is a cause or a concern and be able to have someone to come speak about it. Yeah. Yeah, it feels like somebody probably come in and speak whatever, right?

Yeah. So, one of the um prior to the meeting starting, Janette brought up that on the setbacks with where we talk about a setback of 500 ft. It's from an existing residence or one that's already being built. and she was asking whether we should have a setback from platted or under undeveloped, not underdeveloped but undeveloped subdivisions where maybe that subdivision has already been planned out but hasn't begun construction. Um, and so we can talk about that more. You guys can discuss that as a whole. I can create some language. My concern with it is in Shauny County, we do have a large number of subdivisions that have never been developed that could at any point in time be developed. And I guess, you know, that land could be used for a solar farm in and of itself.

You know, it could be that it's good land for a solar farm. Um, but also, you know, the the concept typically is if you're aware when the solar farm is there and you haven't built your house yet, you you know, when you come in. Now, the the counterargument to that is, are we preventing someone from being able to market and rightfully develop land that they had already planned to develop? And, um, I think it could go either way. Um, you know, anybody could argue that it's preventing them from developing the land next door, whether it's platted or not, but I do think that there's something to look at to see different approved plan.

Yeah. One other thing, sorry my head as I was digging back through my notes here. I think we probably should look into changing the word on number nine about that's the storage of the components damage it. I think when I was originally think of that when we were talking about it, it was to keep it from becoming a junkie and throwing candles there. But the gentleman had a good point that you're out there doing routine maintenance like we want to encourage them to do. They had storage Right. And so the intent of that is not that if they I this is just open parts and junk and broken stuff laying around. It's not to encompass if they have a storage building because you can't have a pertinent facilities within a project area. So we can clean up the language just to clarify that unhoused or open just stuff laying around. It needs to be in an enclosed uh facil a pertinent facility. And that's why sometimes when we craft this language, we think of it a certain way. We don't think about what the counterargument could be. And so, you know, if you read it black and white, then yeah, it says you can't have it even if it were inside of a building. So, yeah, absolutely. It's exactly why we have these town hall meetings to take things that we didn't think about

the context of discussion to read them. Well, if There isn't any further business or any other questions, then we'll close the meeting. We thank you all for coming and sharing your thoughts. And do we need a motion to No. All right. Thank you very much.