Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Will County Planning and Zoning Committee regular meeting of September 15th. We call this meeting to order. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? Commissioner, would you lead us in the Pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

May I have a wall call, please? Here.

John Kiefner, Kimberly Mitchell, Roger Battenhausen, Karen Warwick, Louis Navarrete, and Matt Garland.

A few quick announcements. Would everybody please turn down their cell phone or put it in airplane mode or shut it off? And secondly, I'm going to swear you all in and mass. So anybody speaking today will swear you in right now. Please raise your right hand. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God, I do.

Thank you all.

We're going to start right in with the zoning cases. We have ZC-26-058, which is the zoning case takes place in New Lenox Township on Marley Road. So Alec Van Patten is the presenter.

And I presume he's ready. You are heard, sir.

So I'll be going over ZC 26058. The owners of the property is Keith and Natalie Hearns. They're requesting a variance to bring the lot to conformance and build a pole barn. Please note in the official notice for the zoning case, it was stated the request was 300 feet to zero feet. This was because when the application was received, the parcel was still zoned A2. Since the split zoning decision determined E2 to be more restrictive, Zoning, the zoning was changed to E2, therefore the request is actually 180 feet to zero feet. But this is the zoning map of the property. The subject property is outlined in red. The applicant owns two parcels, one A2 and one E2. Both are 2.5 acres and zero feet of lot frontage as Deer Lane is a private road and therefore does not count towards frontage. The A2 lot was created deficient in lot frontage on August 21st, 1997. This was after adoption of lot standards in 1978, making it an illegal lot. The E2 lot was also illegally split but got a variance for lot frontage on July 15, 2003 bringing it to conformance. This year applicant combined the two parcels and through a split zoning determination the whole parcel is now E2. And this is 2026 aerial of the property with the parcel outlined in blue. The applicant proposed a pole barn on the vacant parcel. Parcels are not allowed to have accessory structures without an existing principal structure. This meant the proposed pole barn could not be built on the vacant parcel without having a residence. Due to this, staff recommended combining the vacant parcel and the one with existing single family residence and then going through a split zoning determination. This new lot was still deficient in lot frontage, so a variance was needed to bring the lot into conformance. And then this is the PLATA survey showing the proposed pole barn outlined in red. And then this is a view looking at the subject property showing the deficiency in lot frontage. This is a view looking down the private drive. This is a view looking at the existing single-family residence. Others view looking at the proposed location of the pole barn.

Others view looking west across Deer Lane. Others view looking south down Deer Lane.

Others view looking north down Deer Lane. So, variance request review based on criteria outlined on the screen, more details analysis can be found in your packets. But to summarize a staff finds only plays due to unique circumstance of the applicant on 2 parcels, 1, a 2 and 1, which they consolidate this year. They 2 parcel was illegally split on August 21st, 1997. the 2 parcel variance to bring it. the lot into conformance in 2003. The applicant came in for a building permit for a pole barn on the vacant A2 property since parcels require primary structures and the pole barn is classified as accessory structure. This was not allowed. The applicant consolidated the two parcels and got split zoning determination this year. This made the parcels into one E2 parcel. This newly created lot is still deficient in frontage and needs variances to be brought into compliance. Staff finds that variance was granted. It will not alter essential character of the locality. There are seven parcels that have been approved for variances for lot frontage, with four of them being for zero feet of lot frontage. The other three were for 20 feet, which is the same amount of lot frontage that would have if deer run was a public road and not a private road. I do not mean to do that. And then staff finds the purpose of the request not based exclusively upon the desire to make money. The property owner is looking to bring the lot into performance and get permits for a pole barn for personal storage. Staff finds the variance will not impair adequate supply of air adjacent to adjacent properties or substantially increase the danger of fire or otherwise in danger of public safety or substantially to diminish or impair property values within the neighborhood. The laws existed without for instance 1997 and the proposed pole barn meets all setbacks for the E2 district. And so staff is recommending approval for the variance and I can answer any questions.

I have no questions. Anyone have questions? Thank you very much, sir. Are there any concerned citizens or objectors to this case here tonight? No concerned citizens or objectors to this case. Okay. Is the primary Keith and Natalie Hearns here tonight? Okay. We have no concerned citizens. We have a recommendation of approval. Do you want us to go ahead and vote or would you like to speak?

Thank you, sir, Mr chairman. Zc 26 dash 0, 5, 8, 26 dash 1, 6, 6. Give me a recommendation to approve from staff and no objection from the public approval variance for minimum lot frontage from 180 feet to 0 feet.

I have a motion in a 2nd, I have a roll call vote please.

John Kiefner? Yes. Roger Bettenhausen? Yes. Matt Garlin? Yes. Lewis Navarrete? Yes. Karen Warrick? Yes. And Chairman Hustepen? Yes. Approved.

Our next zoning case tonight is ZC-26-061, V-26-169, V-26-170, and V-26-171. And it takes place in Wilmington, Illinois, and Jesus Presento will be our presenter. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Thank you. Yes. We'll be going over zoning case. The owner of this property is John and Kathy Hernandez, and the applicant requesting 3 variances to build a new detached garage on the property. Here we have a zoning map of the property outlined in red. The subject property is owned R3 residential and is lot 152 within the Lakewood Shore subdivision. The parcel is deemed a conforming R3 parcel. And as you can see, this case consists of three different pins. However, all three pins are under common ownership and under the same zoning district. Therefore, staff views the pins as one zoning lot. Okay, we have an aerial or a review of the subject property again, outlined in red. The subject property is improved with a one store, one story, single family home, any detached garage. As much for the applicants points to construct a thirty four. A thirty six by twenty four detached garage for additional personal storage. The are three zoning district limit accessory building area to one thousand five hundred square feet. The applicant wishes to keep the existing detached garage with the proposed new detached garage. The property will exceed the maximum accessory building area by 48 square feet. Additionally, the R3 zoning district has a minimum setback of 10 feet from the side property lines. The proposed location of a new detached garage is 2 feet from the southern property line and additional the applicant added an additional variance for side yard setback the northern side to bring the existing detached garage into compliance per areas. The existing detached garage was constructed approximately around 1975. Here we have a screenshot showing the pattern survey. I did kind of highlight the proposed location of the proposed detached garage in red. Here we have a few pictures of the property. First, the view looking east at the subject property. The view looking southeast at the adjacent property. Here we have the view looking west at the portion of the property located across Lakewood Drive. This is the view looking north down Lakewood Drive. And the view looking south down Lakewood Drive. Now to go over to the Revenue Standards and Review Criteria. Staff finds that the plight of the owner is not due to unique circumstances. The applicant may build an accessory building by right provided that the total accessory building area does not exceed 1,500 square feet. The desire to build a new detached garage that encroaches into the R3 side yard setbacks and exceeds the maximum accessory building area is a personal preference rather than a unique circumstance. Staff also finds that the variance will not alter the essential character of the locality. The surrounding area consists of other R3 zone parcels. The request to exceed the maximum accessory building area by 48 square feet will not make the property an outlier in terms of accessory building area. Additionally, there are various parcels in the general area that contain structures that encourage into the required setbacks. Staff also finds the purpose of the variance is not based exclusively upon desire to make more money out of the property. The applicant intends to use a detached garage. As additional personal storage, and staff also finds that the proposed variance will not adversely affect air circulation, increase the risk of fire or diminish property values. As mentioned before, there are various examples of other accessory structures in other parcels encroaching into into the required R3 setbacks and a building permit will be required before the applicant can begin construction of their detached garage. With that said, staff is recommend denial of the variance for maximum accessory building area, denial of the variance for minimum side yard setback from the south side, but approval of the variance for side yard setback from the north side. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

What's the purpose for the denial of the various from the South side. As opposed to the various from the North side.

Yeah, so basically it's based on the applicant's desire. Um, the applicant proposed just to put the detail structure 2 feet from the Southern property line. In comparison, the other range for the North side that was to bring the existing detached garage into compliance. It already exists, correct?

Isn't there a rule that you can approve a certain number percentage of. What did you over the accessories?

Yes, I think you're referring to our administrative adjustments where it's 10%. There is, but the problem, it's the applicant would have to apply for that. There is a 200 dollar fee for that request.

And since they're coming here as they're coming in, right?

Right.

Right and they're building the new structure of which the 1st, 2 variances. Applied to the other 1 is what already exists on the property.

Correct? Yes. Any other questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any concerns citizens or objectives to this case here tonight?

No concerns, citizens or objectives. Okay. Are the Hernandez here? Okay. You heard man, would you care to come up and speak?

Yes, please.

Yes, please.

Right up at the point.

Please give your name 1st for the records.

My name is John. John Hernandez, and this is my wife happy Hernandez.

Thank you.

Never had this done before, so I apologize if I'm going to say something. That I probably should can I just have my wife speak for me? I'm so sorry.

Sure. That's right. The basic reason that we're requesting to have. What was before you is the existing garage we have our vehicles do not fit in this garage with the dimensions. And so my husband is a disabled that. Also, and I am also disabled and so we have reasons. For that also, and we have. Smaller items that will fit into the existing garage and then we want to build this garage with the. Dimensions I can't tell you what that's my husband's department, but that. It's going to be bigger so that we can fit our existing vehicles into the new garage and then we're going to use the existing garage for other items, such as our lawnmower. He has a boat that he uses stuff like that. Okay, so this is why we are trying to get the garage into the back area that we have that's vacant and the area that we're going to build this new garage in.

Did I miss anything in the garage? That's already there. When they built it, they must have, they built it where it's like a 7 foot door. So we can't get the new, like, the newer vehicles are taller, like, SUVs and pickups. So we can't get them into the garage. That's why we're wanting to get it because we don't want to be the people that have everything out in the yard. We're trying to make it look nice. It's a beautiful community and. That's that's that's about it. I'm going to be quiet. I love my wife talk.

That's basically what I said, but he likes he likes to get his 2 cents. And so that's that's the basic reason.

Okay, thank you very much for your testimony. We have no objective, so I will go ahead and call to a vote. But case number is easy. Yes. 26 dash 061 at all. May I have a vote. Okay.

26061, the 26 dash 169 approval variance for maximum accessory building area from 1500 square feet to 1548 square feet.

Second, I have a motion second may have a roll call.

John, yes, Roger. Yes, Matt Garland.

Yes.

Lewis never at Karen Warwick and chairman Houston. Yes.

In case 061 variance 26 dash 170 approval of variance for minimum side yard setbacks outside from 10 feet to 2 feet.

Motion to second roll call please.

John, Keith, Roger, Matt Garland Lewis never at Karen Warwick and chairman who step in. Yes.

And the 3rd variance ended in 171 for K061 approval of variance for minimum side yard setback North side from 10 feet to 5 feet.

2nd.

John Kiefner? Yes. Roger Bettenhausen? Yes. Matt Garland? Yes. Lewis Navarrete? Yes. Karen Warrick? Yes. And Chairman Huestepen? Yes. All approved. All 3 motions were approved.

We agree my next case tonight is ZC dash 26 dash 066. And V dash 26175. Explaining playing field township. And, uh, Marguerite Kenny will be our presenter.

Thank you Mr. chair. Give me 1 seconds. Okay, so, like you said, this zoning case is you see 26066. it has come before you about a year ago or so to get a special use permit for a landscaping business. So it's 26049 West Lockport street. Um, in plain field, the owner applicant is highly enterprises, LLC, where Matthew is the 90% owner. The agent here today is Joseph hammer of the will group engineering and the app applicant operates Fox landscaping from this property. Um, the adjacent property is part of a larger mulching yard. So this is more of the display area and they are looking to construct a new office building on the site. Um, and pretty much in the existing location of where the current office, which is the existing house. But due to the size of the needed structure, it will encroach into the eastern side yard setback. So the applicant is requesting a variance from 50 feet to 16 feet to allow that encroachment. So I have the aerial on the screen for you. You can see that the subject property is located on the western edge of the county. It's along the south side of Lockport Street, which is also Illinois Route 126. Kendall County is just west of the property area. The property outlined in blue is the subject of tonight's zoning case, but the area that you can see partially with the dotted lines is the mulch yard that's part of a larger parcel. That's also part of the applicant's property. It is zoned A1. It has 245 feet of frontage in the area in the solid blue line. Um, under the previous zoning case of CC, 24116, this was combined to have the existing, um, landscaping business as you see on the screen, a site development permit was issued earlier this year, allowing the site to be constructed as this landscape business to legally establish that use. Um. On April 28 of this year, the applicant applied for a new commercial building for a 70 by 100 foot structure that also had a 20 foot by 30 foot structure attached at the location of the existing office, which is in the yellow circle. And because this structure is to be 16 feet from that Eastern property line, the They are basically requesting the variance tonight. So, since the property is owned a 1, typically it's 50 feet and that is the story for that. We have the conceptual site plan on the screen again, just showing the proposed building. They are moving the structure back to meet street setbacks. So it's 100 feet from the center line of. Illinois route 126, but they are having a little. Basically. garage door area access area that's going to be 16 feet from the property line. So just looking at the zoning, you can see this area still is predominantly agricultural in use and zoning districts and the closest municipality which is the village of Plainfield is showing residential development at the corner of Lockport and

Looks like Steiner Road.

Just looking at some photos of the property. So this is looking at the subject property from Lockport Street. This is looking towards that mulch yard and the existing entrance. They only have one entrance on Illinois 126 and it is centrally located in the site. This is looking at the proposed eastern side yard setback. So the house does encroach into the setback. The proposed new building will be about 12 more feet into the setback than the house. This is looking west along Lockport Street, looking southeast, and then looking north. So the criteria by which variances are evaluated are shown in the screen. A more extensive review is in the staff report, but to briefly summarize, staff found unique circumstances in the fact that the property has an unusual development history and existing setback encroachment. The proposed building will meet the street setback. It minimize impacts to the sales yard and maintain the existing access. There will be no change to the local character. While the proposed location is only 12 feet closer to the eastern property line and the existing structure is expected to have negligible impact on the character of the area. Staff found that the property only having 245 feet of frontage as opposed to a typical A1 having 300 feet with a centrally located access point creates a site-specific hardship and relocating or modifying the access would require costly and lengthy IDOT approvals before they could potentially get their permit to build a new structure. It's generally not applicable as most A1 properties have the required 300 feet of frontage. This property being deficient is unique. The variance is intended to improve the functionality of the existing landscape business. It's not solely to increase profitability. And the proposed building location is influenced by the existing while septic considerations and desire to make a similar location to the current office. The variance is not expected to negatively affect neighboring properties or public welfare and the proposed setback in screening would provide separation from the multi yard operations from the properties to the east. Um, the approvals have already received sign off from the fire protection district, which is playing field, the health department and Illinois department transportation and final review and approvals are still underway for our, the land use departments, engineering, building and zoning staff. With that staff is recommending approval of the variance for minimum side your setback. Staff finds the requested variance meets the required approval criteria and is likely to adversely affect the surrounding area while addressing the unique site constraints and improving functionality of the existing business. Of the agencies notified, none objected, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Do you know if the building size has increased? Obviously, do you know if the staff size has increased?

I do believe... Their staff size will not, I think the need for. The additional spaces to help with just the vehicles and. Maintenance of the site, so they have heavier equipment for the multi yard.

So they're parking will be basically the same then.

That's my understanding. They're anticipating about 10 trips per day. Fewer than 20 customers are expected to visit the site. Their hours of operation would be Monday through Friday, 645 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 645 a.m. to 3 p.m. Yeah, I read that.

I just didn't find anything about parking in there. That's why I'm asking. Okay, thank you. Anyone else have questions? Thank you very much. Case number ZC dash 26 dash 066 at all. Are there any objectors or concerned citizens to this case?

There are not.

Is the agent Mr. Hammer here? We don't care to come up and speak, sir. We have no. We have no concerned citizens or objectors and we have a motion of approval by staff, so.

No, unless there's any other questions that need to be answered. We're good.

I don't think we have any questions, except for what I post about the parking.

So very good.

Is it all right if we go ahead and take a vote?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And I'm also for approval of a case number.

Easy that places that he wants to be that 26175. Ready for, you know, inside of 150 feet. 2nd.

I have a motion and a second. May I have a roll call?

John Kiefner? Yes. Roger Bettenhausen? Yes. Matt Garland? Yes. Lewis Navarrete? Yes. Karen Warrick? Yes. And Chairman Eustiffen? Yes. Approved.

Our next case tonight is one of the cases I presume the people are here for. Just an assumption on my part. This is case number ZC-26-055 and S-26-029 and S-26-031 and V-26-160 and V-26-161. It will take place in Manhattan township and it is a request for solar farm. And he's just present away. Presenter will be our presenter. I don't know why I'm tripping on your last name tonight. It's all right about that.

So, yes, you're correct. I'll be going over his own case. The owner of the property is Samir. The agent is Angela for area of cultivate power doing business as still water, solar, LLC. The attorney is Benjamin Jacoby of. And as mentioned before, the applicant is requesting a special use permit for a commercial solar energy facility. And especially for a battery storage system with 2 variances for number required moans and plant height to construct a 5 megawatt community solar farm. One thing I would like to quickly mention is that on the published agenda, the variance for maximum ground cover plant height was not included. The zoning case was published correctly in the newspaper and it was correctly included in the certified mailings to abutting property owners. However, due to that error, the variance request for maximum ground cover plant height cannot be voted on today. It will be heard at the October 6th planning and zoning meeting. So, now going over the interview of the property, the entire property is outlined in red. The purple is a requested battery energy storage system and the green is a requested area for the commercial solar energy facility. The entire parcel is approximately 153 acres in size. The applicant requesting the special use permit for the commercial solar energy facility. To be approximately 52 acres and the battery energy storage system to be approximately 10 acres. The parcel is within Manhattan township, the village of Manhattan and Linux are located within a mile and a half radius of the subject property. And per areas, the site is actively farmed and contains an agricultural building barn and a single family house. They are all located at the southwest corner of the property. Now, we have a zoning map of the property. The property is zoned A1 and is deemed a conforming A1 parcel. And as mentioned before, only the northern 52 acres portion of the property will be developed with a solar energy facility if the special use permits and variances are approved for this parcel. Here we have a screenshot showing a platter survey of the property. Again, this kind of outlines the requested special use area for the solar energy facility and the battery energy storage facility in blue as well. Now, we have a screenshot showing the proposed site plan for the project. The project will include estimated 16,245 panels. The panels will be mounted on a single access tracking system that will allow the panels to rotate to follow the sun. The panels will not be allowed to exceed 20 feet in height at full tilt. This slide does show an updated site plan and what was included in the staff reports. The applicant stated the new site plan includes changes that were incorporated after meeting with several public agencies and their feedback. The plan shows 2 equipment pads that are proposed. Both are centrally located within the northern 52 acres of the property. The equipment bands are approximately 530 feet from the Western property line, 730 feet from the Northern property line, 1850 feet from Eastern Avenue and 1680 feet from Baker road. The applicant does not have an exact location of where the battery energy storage system will be located. But as mentioned for the applicant did specify a 10 acre portion of the property. Where the system could be located in, depending on final engineering, if the special use permit is approved for the 10 acre area for battery energy storage system. At the building permit process, staff will verify that the proposed location is within the approved special use area. If the applicant seeks to change the area, a new special use permit will be required. Um, the applicant will be leasing the property based on the terms of the lease agreement, at least for 1 for approximately 20 years with the option to extend lease for additional times for 5 years. Each Kimberly horn did prepare a sound state for the project. The study showed that the predicting noise levels, including those from the battery storage system would remain below the acceptable limits established by Illinois pollution control board. A glare study was also prepared and submitted for this case to report place receptors on the 3 nearest homes as well as a receptor along Eastern Avenue. The report concluded that no glare was predicted and the full report for both the glare study and the noise study can be found in the staff reports. And finally, the report for this property gave at least a score of 188 out of 300, placing it in the essential from lens category as part of the permitting process staff will require the applicant to work with the will self cook. So, yeah, and water conservation district to develop a conservation plan. Now, for a few pictures of property 1st, we have the view look at the property from Eastern Avenue. This kind of where the panels are proposed. The view looking North down Eastern Avenue. If you're looking at the Northern adjacent property. This is a view looking South at the subject property at the existing vegetation. This is a view looking east at the adjacent property across Eastern Avenue. This is a view at the sign that was installed along Eastern Avenue. This is a view looking south at the adjacent property across Baker Road. This is a view looking east down Baker Road. And just to go over what you see on a screen here shows the what a complete application is required to submit the Red Bull is required for Illinois signing requirements and the blackboard is permitted for counties to require the applicant has submitted all the required submittals for the case to be to proceed to this public hearing. Now, as a quick reminder that the court, that court president stipulates that the sales and clear factors do not apply to commercial solar energy facilities, which are shown on the screen. But the specialist criteria does apply to the battery energy storage special use criteria. So, to quickly go review that a full analysis can be found in the staff report, but to quickly summarize staff finds a special use permit for battery energy storage system will not be detrimental to, or in danger to public safety. The site plan shows a proposed battery storage system. Location will be approximately 730 feet from the northern property line. 650 feet from the Western property line, 730 feet from the northern property line. And 1,850 feet from Eastern Avenue. Additionally, the equipment use will be required to have certification or equivalent at the time of permitting staff also finds that the special use will not impede the normal. and orderly development of the area. The battery storage units are often designed with a multiple management systems that monitor the status of the system themselves and can be shut down in the event of a failure. And finally, if the special use permit is approved, the applicant will be required to adhere to regulations outlined in Section 155-9.220 of the Will County Zoning Ordinance. Now, going over the very standard recruit review criteria again, this is just for the 1st variance. That's going to be ordered on today. The range requests were reviewed based on criteria outlined on the screen. A more detailed analysis can be found in the staff report, but to quickly summarize the state encourages commercial solar energy facilities to use pollinator friendly species needed to Illinois. For the latest plant species to grow effectively, they need to be, they need to grow higher than thirteen inches. The applicant did submit a preliminary operations and maintenance plan as part of their submittal, allowing how maintenance will be done on site. Staff will require a final version of the operations and maintenance plan. At the time of permitting. For for agency comments that receive comments from the Manhattan township fire protection district that can be found in the staff report, but they stated several concerns on the battery energy storage component of the project. Comments from Manhattan township also saying their objection to this request. Was also sent out as a memo, and the will kind of force preserve also had comments that were sent out as a memo staff to receive a summary of stakeholder engagement and agreed upon conditions from the applicants that were sent out as a memo as well. And finally staff to receive an objection resolution resolution from the village of Manhattan. That was also sent out as a memo today. With that said, staff is recommending approval of the special use for commercial solar energy facilities with the five conditions listed on the screen and the battery energy storage system, special use with five conditions also, and approval of the two variances. But as a reminder, only the variance for number of required mowings will be voted on today. With that said, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions.

So, the battery energy storage system is still part of this proposal.

Correct? Yes.

Okay. He's in the communication from the township. It states here that they are agreeable to work with the township board, ensure compliance with their solar energy resolution, which I believe 1 of the objections was. to withdraw the battery energy storage component from the special use permit application. But apparently they did not do that then.

Yes, I believe the applicant can speak more to that, but I didn't receive an official request to withdraw that special use permit.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

No problem.

Are there any concerns, citizens, or objectives to this case? Got two there. Is that all? Oh, there's more. That's what I wanted to know.

Thank you.

I hear from the staff of the solar farm that we have, who was Angela Faria as a spokesman and agent and Benjamin Jacoby as the attorney. Okay. Okay, I see the attorney has arrived.

Well, yeah, I'm wearing the tie, so, you know, you know, who the attorney is yourself anyway.

So, for the records, so thank you very much.

Mr. chair. Ben Jacoby. I'm the attorney for the applicant, which is still water solar LLC owned by cultivate power. It's not my 1st time before this board. It's privileged to be back. So thank you very much. I'm going to introduce the project at a very high level staff did a very good job there and introduce the. Staff that's with us tonight to present the project, but we are asking tonight that this commission recommend approval of a special use permit for the solar project, a 5 megawatt community, energy, community, solar, energy facility, and then a battery energy storage system, which is a 5 megawatt system over 4 hours. And then the 1 variance tonight that was on the agenda, which is the number of moments, which is a variance. This board is familiar with. And then the 2nd variance will bring back to you at and you're at your August meeting or your October meeting. I'm joined here tonight by our robust team. We have Angela area is the lead developer from cultivate power and she'll present and discuss the company and the project. Generally the design. I know there's questions about the storage. She'll address those. We also have with us James Caulfield and Adam. I'm sorry, Mike, Mike Tracy. They're from. Fire and risk alliance, they're experts in fire safety, primarily related to the, to the storage system, but they will be they're here to answer questions that you have on the storage system with respect to fire and safety. And they're independent experts that we that have a ton of experience and they're very knowledgeable. We are excited about this project. You'll see it's strategically located there away from houses just north of Manhattan. The solar component is 900 plus feet from any residents and the, the storage component is 1500. Plus feet from any residences we're asking for a 10 acre, uh, area for the storage, but the storage itself only takes about a 10th of an acre. And that's because when we go into final design, we need some, some room to move it around. Um, but so I don't want you to think that it's a 10 acre storage system. It's a 10th of an acre storage system that will place somewhere in the 10 acre square that is in the presentation. Uh, the, the project will bring a number of benefits to the community. These will be discussed in greater detail. There are things that you have heard before, but I want to make sure that the folks here that are that are commenting are aware as well. 1 is taxes. And as, you know, the solar project statutorily tax today per megawatt basis. The storage system is also statutorily taxed at a per kilowatt hour basis and the project is estimated to generate a little over 2Million dollars over the life of the project. Um, the storage system adds to that the solar you see doesn't quite get, you know, it's about a 1Million and the battery adds another 1Million on top or so estimated. It'll also generate prevailing wage construction jobs. Um, solar and storage are both temporary uses and allows the land owner to return the land. To farming, we've entered into an agricultural impact mitigation agreement with the Illinois Department of agriculture, which is a contract between us and the Illinois Department of agriculture that requires the decommissioning of the solar facility back to its original state. And then there are commitments with storage as well. There's no aim for storage, but there, but there are commitments that we have to that that are the same. And that we've made through your ordinance, it's a community store project, which means it will deliver approximately electricity equivalent to approximately 900 to 1000 homes average us homes. And the storage itself adds resiliency and reliance to the system. How it operates is, you know, when there's extra electricity on the system, it will dispatch to the storage. It will store there. And then at times of high demand through storms, winter storms. or summer storms then it will dispatch back into the distribution grid and it serves those people on the distribution grid which are residents in the community customers of comet So, we took great care to design this project in conformance with your ordinances. We believe that it complies. We appreciate staff's report on that as well. We hope to earn your vote tonight. There are a couple of housekeeping items. We have some exhibits that I'd like to. Introduce into the record 1 is the application with our exhibits a through Z. we have a PowerPoint presentation that you'll see in a moment and then there are proposed conditions. We were. You know, there's been a lot of outreach you'll hear from Angela on that. Um, and during the course of the outreach with particularly the township and the fire district, uh, we've agreed to a number of conditions. Um, that we think are responsive to their to their concerns, particularly on storage, but on the project generally, my understanding is that you have a copy of the conditions that we've proposed. But if you don't. Um, I have 1 copy and I can share it with you. Um, and otherwise I'll put those in the record later, but I wanted you to know that we've. Gone above and beyond in that in that way. So, uh, with that, I will turn it over to Angela to present the project in more detail. And, uh, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you Ben next slide. Not sure who's controlling this.

So, I won't try to touch upon what Ben had already mentioned in terms of the benefits and the why, please start with your name for reference. Hi, I'm Angela area. I'm the lead developer for still water solar, the special use applicant for today's project. So, in terms of just project location, the main motivation, why we selected this particular site is a number of reasons. The 1st, and generally limiting factor of where we can site solar is the availability of capacity into the common grid. So we can't just site solar in any parcel. There has to be typically an interconnection study done with ComEd or Ameren, in this case ComEd, which then they then determine whether we can put additional supply of electricity into that grid. And based on our interconnection feedback from ComEd, there is available capacity of five megawatts. And that's the primary reason why we're applying for a five megawatt project today. The next criteria that we look at typically is landowner interest. We have a lease with a landowner for 20 years renewable for 4 terms of 5 years each, or up to 40 year lease term. And then we also look at land topography and surrounding uses. So we're very mindful of. of siting in Will County. This is my third project that I've developed in Will County. We typically like to site projects as far away from residences as possible, and to the extent that we can't site them as far from possible, we try to work with neighbors who are willing to engage with us and provide additional screening, landscaping, and other visual screening mitigation. Next slide, please. objector about floodplain involvement yes so the 52 acres but 27 acres of solar panels we do follow the north side of jackson creek is any of that in the floodplain yes so we specifically cited the project so that no solar panels will be within the floodplain and as you can see in the site plan that i'll be showing in the later side there the floodplain on the site plan is the one that's shaded in light blue and dark blue so there's no panels on site on the floodplain um there will be small portion which will be the pad mounted point of interconnection which is approximately the size of this podium that will be on the floodplain but based on our initial feedback from the Department of Natural Resources generally floodplain development is allowed provided that we are able to meet or exceed the base flood elevation so that it's it's safe and not it won't be at risk so that will be also a floodplain permit that we will be applying for during the building permit phase Next slide please. And then just to maybe follow up on that answer, there are different, you'll see in the site plan later that there are different types of floodplain. There's floodplain AE and there's also a regulatory floodplain. That's considered the strictest level of floodplain. So typically you don't, we don't develop and we won't impact on the regulatory floodplain. So the, The floodplain that we will be impacting is a floodplain zone, I believe, which is subject to additional permitting from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and potentially Will County as well. Next slide please. Okay, so in terms of the preliminary site plan, Jesus did a good job of pointing the general components of the site plan, but what I would like to also highlight is in spite of the fact that the minimum required setbacks for solar is about 150 feet from residences and 50 feet from the right of way, We are proposing a, at least 700 foot setback from the closest residents residents to the solar panels and then approximately 650 feet from the right of way. That's also mainly due to the fact that there is floodplain towards the northeastern side of the project area. And then, in terms of the, the best system, it will be centrally located as mentioned by Ben. It's approximately point 1 acres. That's the total system. And then, as in response to the feedback from the Manhattan fire district, we are installing a. a minimum 30-foot gravel or non-combustible buffer around the best area. So that will in fact not be subject to the variance. That will be maintained free and clear of any vegetation as an additional safety measure. And then the one thing I'll also add is we will maintain all the existing trees just south of the project. So where that floodplain area is that bisects the project, that will be maintained in place. And in fact, our landowner had offered to enter into good faith negotiations with the forest preserve to potentially work with them on preserving that as a future potential trail. But from my understanding that the forest preserve has still not made any final plans on that trail yet. And then the other thing I'd like to point out is that there will be, we have proposed existing screening on the northeastern side of the project. So that will be along Southeastern Avenue, just as an additional screening along the right of way. Based on our conversations with Manhattan Township, we are agreeing to their minimum spacing and maturity requirements. So we've included that in the special use conditions, which I'll be talking about in the next few slides. Next, please. So again, I'd like to just highlight some of the site plan changes that we have made. So the latest site plan before you today includes some of the following changes we've made based on just discussions with the township, the fire district, forest preserve, and soil and water conservation district. So the first change we made was that we increased our setback from Jackson Creek to a minimum of 298 feet from the creek. And then in terms of fire access, we also revised our fire access to meet the fire district's requirements of maintaining a 600 foot distance from the road to all panels. And then we also added that non-combustible buffer surrounding the BESS area. And then, in terms of landscaping and vegetation, so there's a lot of feedback from the township, the fire, the forest preserve and the soil and water conservation district. So we will be including and incorporating those recommendations both in our vegetation plan. We have submitted a preliminary plan, but a final plan will be submitted at building permit and we will also be entering into a. conservation plan agreement with the Soil and Water Conservation District, which does incorporate the native seed suggestions by the district. And then finally, another change we had made is initially our site plan included utility poles. So these poles are typically wooden poles of that range between 40 to 50 feet from ground level. Based on feedback from the township and the county, we have agreed that our customer point of interconnection equipment will be pad mounted And again, so instead of 45-foot pole, you'll see a structure as big as this podium. And then the ComEd side, we will also be discussing the potential of the ComEd-facing interconnection equipment to also be pad-mounted. But that depends on ComEd's requirements.

Next slide, please.

So the next slide here, you should have a memo of the full list of conditions and commitments that this project will be agreeing to and will be agreeing to as part of the special use permit itself. But just to summarize some of the commitments we've made is, as I mentioned, the landscaping and screening and the type and the spacing and the height as well. The fencing, as required by the township, we will be placing a chain link fence with a rail installed to prevent sagging. We also have agreed to essentially a 24 hour response time if there's any significant damage beyond wear and tear. that we become apprised of or notified of. So we agreed to provide a response within 24 hours. And if there is any damage, we also agreed to provide any temporary and or permanent repairs to any damage that is observed. And then, as mentioned, we incorporated the seed recommendation from the soil and water conservation district. And and so that actually explains why our special use permit area is slightly larger than the fenced area. That's mainly because we have agreed to add a vegetation buffer between the creek and our project to maintain that separation. And then, as mentioned, that we will work with the forest preserve on that potential land rights to that trail that crosses the property. And then next is we also have agreed to provide a landscaping maintenance bond. The county itself already has very strict requirements on maintaining landscaping, maintaining vegetation. The state also has the Illinois noxious weed law. But in addition to maintaining compliance with that, we have also agreed to provide a 10-year renewable for another 10-year maintenance bond in favor of the township. So this should answer for any defective vegetation or maintenance that's observed on the project. And then similar to the two previous projects I developed in Will County where we did end up hiring local landscapers, we have also agreed to prioritize hiring local landscapers. in the township and which we believe will really help just establish those community benefits locally. And then to address the question raised by the gentleman earlier. Yes, initially we were considering a withdrawal of the special use permit for the storage. But at this point, we decided to keep to proceed with the public hearing for the special use permit. But with that said, we have agreed to the following conditions. Specifically for the best or the battery energy storage system and those conditions are as follows. So, 1st, we agreed to not have any standalone best. So we will only install the best if the solar will be installed as required by the county. We will comply with national fire protection association 855. that's the national standard for battery energy safety. And the 2021 international fire code, which is adopted by the Manhattan fire district. And then we also have agreed to continue coordination and final review and approval of the final best layout, the final emergency response plan and the final. Emergency response procedures with the fire district and then finally, we also have agreed that we will need to maintain a minimum 900 foot setback from the closest residents. But as mentioned again, based on the current site plan to date, the setback is about over 1500 feet. And then finally, as required by the permit, but we've also agreed as a condition is we will complete any drain tile investigation and submit that as part of the building permit process.

Next slide, please.

Um, I won't touch upon this too closely been talked about the. The benefits of storage and why we chose to develop storage in addition to the solar. But again, I think this is a good visual example of what the importance of of storage to the project and to the grid is that it essentially it essentially. stores energy when it is most plentiful, which is typically during the day, so it will receive the energy from the solar facility, and then at times when demand is high, which is typically in the evening or early morning when people are waking up, turning on their dishwasher or they're cooking their oven, That's when the batteries will be discharged. And why this is important is that it helps essentially have a stable grid. And what a stable grid means for residents and communities is it prevents and helps prevent flickering lights, outages, sudden spikes in electricity costs. So that's essentially the added benefit that the storage has to the community. Next slide, please. This slide here shows a little bit about the general overview of the design of the storage. We are proposing an LG energy solution. So this is a tier one storage system. It's one of the safest in the market right now. The technology, it's a lithium ion battery technology, but the chemistry is lithium iron phosphate. And the reason why we had selected this is it's known as compared to the nickel battery manganese cobalt technology is known to be more thermally stable. And what that means is essentially the risk of combusting or catching fire is much lower than the previous technology that was used pre and many years ago. Additionally, we are also doing site protection, so we have the dedicated gravel buffer. And in terms of the configuration, the BEST system essentially looks like a shipping container. As you can see here, there are the dimensions of one container. This project anticipates up to five containers, but the final selection of number of containers will be done at the building permit stage. And then in terms of built-in safety, again, multiple layers of safety. This project, both the solar and the storage, will be monitored remotely 24-7. There are temperature and safety detection measures, fire alarm, liquid cooling to prevent overheating of the batteries. And then there are also automatic remote shutdown procedures. so in fact a more detailed outline of the safety measures we included in our preliminary emergency response plan which is us which is part of the application today and then i won't touch upon the last table there which just talks about the conditions that we agreed to This slide talks about just highlighting the property tax benefits. Currently, the use is agriculture. We will continue to, the landowner will continue to use the southern portion of his parcel as agriculture, but for the northern portion of the parcel, there will be added property tax benefits, which we are highlighting here in this slide. Last slide, please. And then again, just to summarize some of the local benefits, as mentioned, this is a community solar project. So. Residents, as in the ComEd area, will be able to subscribe and potentially generate electricity savings on the supply side of their electricity bill. We have also historically committed to local organizations. In this case, we've committed to the food pantry, the Manhattan Parks District, and the Manhattan Elwood Public Library. So this is in addition to the other environment, the benefits that Ben had already mentioned today. And that's it. Thank you.

I have a couple of questions, if I may. Yes. You have a 30-foot ring around your battery storage facility. I presume you have a road for the fire trucks going from the access road all the way in to that store. Yes. That 34 ring, correct?

Yes, the road does go all the way up to the gravel area.

Okay. And the next question I have, uh, it's technical. I wonder if you've ever used. Hey, line or something like that as a suppressant. For your fires and inside the. I was thinking of the assurance.

Sorry, could you repeat what what material? Hey, line.

How on your question for the gentleman?

Yeah.

Let's invite our fire safety experts. Mr. call field up. Address that question.

Thank you James call field for the record. I work for fire risk alliance. Fire risk alliance is a fire and engineering firm. We're 3rd party. We come in and assist with educating communities training. 1st responders a little context. I've been in emergency services. I'm an active firefighter for over 20 years. I travel internationally working at these type of meetings to share some information. So just a little bit of background. So to your question about Halon, Halon was used in the past, and we have seen in the industry that the use of those type of agents is not going to suppress the fire. So in the event of a fire, what we do is exposure protection. So we're going to use some intermittent water to cool the adjacent containers.

Yeah, I saw that you have there. refrigeration, liquid refrigeration system for cooling.

Yes, sir. That's to keep the batteries cool, you know, so they can operate in optimal temperature. So just to your point, Halon was used. We no longer use suppressants inside the containers.

Thank you. I was just curious.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you. Have you had any more?

No, I'm just here if there are any questions. Does anyone else have any questions? Yes. So, I need clarification. You had a slide up and your wording was proposed. My memory is not going to do it. So I took a picture proposed additional commitments and conditions. So I guess I need to check with the staff on this. You have the landscape and screening the fencing, the damage response, the Jackson Creek vegetation buffer a lot of these. Do these become part of their application? Because I don't see each of these necessarily mentioned in your conditions with recommendation for approval. So, and it says proposed, so it doesn't say, are these binding? If we vote, yes, and it moves to the county board gets voted. Yes. Are the things that are on this screen binding? I can help. I can help.

Sorry. I can help a little. Actually, that was the sheet I mentioned earlier. These are conditions that we would accept as binding on the project and they. That's a summary. This is the language we would propose.

I can, that's something that's on our desktop. I take it. I found the interconnection agreement, the updated site plan. Yeah, it says updated site plan interconnection agreement, but it looks like all these pages are site plan. I hate when we get this because I got about 80 pages dumped on my excuse me that was handed out.

To each 1 of these, right?

And, you know, it was given it to us tonight. So here I'm at a meeting trying to pay attention, but read 40 pages that was given to me at 715. so, yeah, and I know I'm not blaming you. I know to answer you do have it. So, back to my original thing, we is that part of the application and binding.

We would accept it as binding. Just like the conditions, and I don't mean to answer staff, but just like the conditions that staff has proposed, we would propose that you just tack these on that conditions list.

And I'm assuming legally, if he's under oath and he says we'd accept that as binding, that is binding.

Well, I assume the staff is going to say to you that you're going to have to adopt these in the way that we've done it many, many times before. You're just going to have to make the motion with the well, you're going to have to have a motion to add those conditions and then a motion to approve the whole thing with that.

That's where I'm getting at. So, you know. And I've seen this in many times, they say proposed building site, propose this and then everybody's surprised. It's different than what was here, which technically we don't have the responsibility of designing the project. We're just here to prove it within our building zoning code. Right, but I know all the people out here in the audience, these are questions that they have. So they would like to know that if construction happens in 3 years and things that you said here aren't happening. They have some kind of legal recourse.

We would commit to this, we'd be in violation of the special use permit if we failed 1 of these conditions. And if you, if you move to amend, if you move to adopt a special use permit with the conditions of. Proposed by staff and the conditions on this page, and that motion prevails, then those are conditions on our special use permit to which we must adhere. Down the road, and if we fail to, then there'd be a recourse under your zoning code for that.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, thank you. Are these the most recent ones? Okay.

I can use this all up here. No, we're with you. Okay. You're with me, but.

I want out the eyes when it comes to a land evaluation site assessment, Lisa score essential farmland. That's really not a consideration on your part.

I take it.

So it's all about connectivity, I imagine, right?

Yes.

But the heck with the lease agreement, right?

Well, I think in terms of selecting sites, we do try to look for, again, landowner interest and, and we, as to the extent possible, we wouldn't there, my understanding is that lease has different levels of score, we We did agree that the lead owner will continue to farm the remaining farmland. Um, but yes.

I think part of the point, and I get, I understand, but part of the point is, you know. Um, 1 of the 1 of the primary getting issues is is landowner agreement landowner involvement, whether the person that's currently farming the land is willing to. To work with us, um, and if they are, then, um. You know, then that's the 1st getting issue and then we have to decide whether there's. You know, interconnectivity and other constraints that would limit a project. Um, but, you know, this landowner, I think, um, was interested in working with us. He submitted a letter actually to the record that I, I don't think was was read in. But for the record, there is a landowner letter in the record. Projects fairly, you know, it's right in between Manhattan and new Linux and you'll see. You'll see that Manhattan has objected and we were disappointed on Manhattan's objection, but they objected on the basis that, you know, they anticipate future residential growth in this area. So. Manhattan would like to see this area grow residentially. It's not ready for that yet. That market's not mature and that's why this landowner hasn't developed it residentially until it is solar as a holdover. So I appreciate that concern and comment. For now, we can keep it with native prairie grass and pollinator friendly seed mix and a solar facility. And when we decommission, maybe it'll be residential, maybe it'll continue to be farmed.

I guess if the Illinois Department of Agriculture isn't concerned, I guess we shouldn't be concerned, right?

Well, they do. I mean, we have the AMA, which I know you've seen. That's a form contract.

That's what it is.

But it's a small piece of land.

And then you brought up the potential residential development area. I always like to hear companies like yourself talk about adjacent landowner values. How do you respond to that? I know what your answer is, but I always like to hear you say it anyhow.

Yeah, I mean, for the record, and I think this is addressed in the application, but, um. If it's not, um, you know, I know you've heard the studies before, but so that people are aware, you know, there's a, there's a number of this is something that's been studied a lot. You know, it was a, it was a big concern when still was 1st, being developed in these types of areas. Um, a lot of questions being asked and so people went out and did, um, large scale studies and there are a number of studies from 1012 years ago and more studies. Even recently, we had a study out of the, the University of Russia University of Loyola University of Chicago. Um. that measured property value impacts in the Midwest specifically. So it's the most targeted study of projects in our area. It found that solar projects built in rural areas could actually increase property values to neighbors I know. And I always get some laughs in the neighborhood of 0.5 to 2%. Now, the reason why, if you read the study, the reason why is because the property tax increase that you just saw of $2 million, about $75,000 the first year. You know, when you have solar projects that are putting that type of money into the system, into the schools, schools get better, the infrastructure gets better. And look, I'm not a real estate expert. I'm not standing up here to be a real estate expert. I'm just a lawyer. And I can read the studies and the data. So all I can do is present the data that we have and that's 1 set of data that we have. We have another set of data out of a Virginia tech study. That was a 2025 study. I believe. That I think it measured, like, several 1Million transactions. And it found results all over the place on the East coast property values tended to go down in the Midwest property values tended to go up same same type of result. And this was a large scale mass study. So, um, and those and actually, um, the, the. counterintuitively, I know the land that was facing the solar tended to go up even more than land that was not. So it's just data. I can't speculate for the reasons. That's just what the matched pairs analysis, these hedonic studies are showing in the Midwest specifically. So to answer your question, I appreciate it allowing us the opportunity to put that type of evidence into the record. That is what the studies are showing and that's what we go off of.

I'm always kind of surprised, too, when you talk about the taxes generated by a facility like yours. It just doesn't seem like it's a lot over a 20-, 30-, 40-year period of time, especially when you consider what the landowners are being paid on an annual basis or what you might purchase a property for, which I think it's rare that you would purchase a property. You generally want to pay the landowners annual payments. So considering that, it just seems like what the... the project generates from a tax standpoint, isn't that great? Especially when you consider, you know, what education costs in a state.

Yeah, you know, the landowners like to have the investment. So, you know, the deal that's structured with landowners, landowner driven often, you know, they want to keep the land. Sometimes they own more land and for them to continue farming their other land with more volatile returns, you know, this type of project gives them a more, you know, A constant return on an investment that they can that they can rely on. I'm not going to speculate to this landowners intentions. I don't know what they are. We have we have the letter. Um, but with with respect to, um, you know, the taxes, you know, it's statutory. It's it is it is, um. The good part about Illinois, as opposed to some other states, other states don't have the statutory formula and you have to go and negotiate your taxes in every single taxing jurisdiction. And sometimes they're lower and sometimes they're higher and it's all uneven and nobody knows what they're getting and Illinois. We have a statute that says you have to pay X number of dollars per megawatt over every year. At least so far as the statute exists over every year. And the same is true for battery. That was part of the recent. Um, law now are the dollars gigantic on a project of this size, which is 37 or so acres. They're not, they're not life changing. You know, I'm not going to try to pitch that. They are, um, you know, they are, they are more than what the property generates now by a factor of 10. Almost, yeah, 8 extra cell. Um, so there's more there that's being put into the infrastructure. Um, but, you know, it's not, it's not life changing. I, I would agree with that.

The one other question I had, there's a 30 foot ring around your battery proposal. Is that just gravel or? Yes, it's not cement. It doesn't there's no other containment other than gravel underneath that.

It will not be cement. The only cement on the property will be the equipment pads that will host or that will hold the containers as well as the, the 2 equipment pads that will hold the inverters that will convert the electricity from D. C. To AC, but as required or requested by the fire district, the surrounding area. Um, the material he used was, uh, the, the, the terminology he used was that. That we should install either a gravel or non combustible area. So most likely the material we will be using for that buffer area will be gravel.

If there is a fire, what kind of contamination is that emit then? I mean, is it leach into the groundwater then and or do you have to remove like. Tons of soil from around that then.

So in reference to a fire, when we look at these cells, these cells are hermetically sealed and then these containers are steel containers. So we're not seeing anything leaching into the soil. There is data. Unfortunately, when events occur, it's a bad thing, but it gives us an opportunity to do some post-event analysis. And from the East Coast to the West Coast at these post-event analysis is we've done soil testing and there've been no harmful toxins detected in those soils. Again, this is testing done by,

state and federal agencies we just collect the data and we share that again so there would be nothing leaching into into the soils to follow up on his question though i think a bigger concern might be the air quality in the event of a fire i mean social media was pretty a buzz two days ago power outage at the major refinery they did a major flare-up for 30 miles you could just see this terrible noxious cloud drifting all over the environment What is your quality when one of these fires have happened?

So, one thing we do is we do a plume analysis. So we actually do a large scale fire test, and we're actually able to burn a battery and test what's in those constituents. So the three prevalent gases are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. So what we're able to do in a battery fire is I'm able to identify what is burning. And as a firefighter, as well as Mike over here, there's no fire ever that I can tell you exactly what's burning. If I go to a house fire, I don't know what's in somebody's garage. And that's more concerning to me. I can go to an industrial fire, I don't know. So I'm able to identify those, but furthermore, we're able to say that we've done air monitoring at fires that have occurred. We are not seeing any of those constituents outside of the fence line. So evacuations have been ordered in the past and those evacuations were based on fear and emotion, not facts and data. Again, the guess is that we're recognizing rise and dissipate. And again, we do a large scale plume model to recognize and understand what those constituents are. furthermore when we do fire department training with the developing of the emergency response plan one of the first steps is going to be to conduct some community air monitoring and we are significantly far far away from any of our closest exposures being over 1500 feet do these battery sites last for the duration of the project 20 30 40 years or do they have to be at some point

Taken away and new batteries brought in or yes.

Yes. Typically the expectation is that the best the best facility is a supporting facility to the solar and based on our project use typical project useful life of this project of the scale. It's typically up to 40 years. So there's no expectation that we would replace the battery. Typically, the battery will will last as long as the, the solar component as well.

Do we have one of those batteries I can put in my cell phone?

It's actually the same technology that's in your cell phone. But it's on a larger scale.

Have we any more questions?

Sorry, one more. On the plume studies, I guess what were the What were the radiuses, I guess, of the plume? How do you measure what toxins at what feet from the fire?

Is that accurate? Is it essentially like a bullseye coming off of it? So I'm going to answer the question the best I can. I'm a firefighter. I'm not one of the engineers. So I can give you that. I've been to a large-scale battery fire test. I've watched one of these containers burn. They put a node directly over the container to understand those constituents, and then throughout the process and distances, there are other detectors set up to monitor for those constituents. How that process actually works, it's more of an engineering question that I really can attest to, but that's somewhat what the process looks like to detect those gases, if that helps.

I think so. Thank you.

Have we any more questions? Thank you very much.

Would you take a seat up front place and we'll ask. People that come down who would like more explanation from you. Concerned citizens are objectors. Uh, which is a cure come down here. You could wait until there's less people, or you could all line up against the wall, whatever places you. Well, I can hear it 1 at a time and we have a number of people speaking. So consider that when you're talking to like, the time. Okay.

Sure. Okay. Good evening. My name is Andrea and I'm a Manhattan township resident 20 years and I was at the Manhattan township meeting when the still water. Complex was proposed, we were given this map. On paper, I don't know if you were given the large paper 1, we are getting a large paper map. I am a member of the watershed committee and when I looked at this map, I was extremely concerned about the proximity of this complex to. The watershed and Jackson Creek, I live about half mile downstream from this complex. So. Whatever falls into the watershed is going to run adjacent to my neighborhood because this creek runs right past my neighborhood and it also goes through the round barn farm park district. In Manhattan township, there are children that play by this creek. And this creek, as I said, it goes adjacent to a neighborhood and we are all on. Well, so this would greatly impact our water table. Should these batteries become compromised in any way? We were told there would be 5 battery compartments at 100,000 pounds each. So that's 500,000 pounds of lithium battery storage. On the banks of the watershed. Okay. I don't feel that that's appropriate for where there could be children nearby or where people get their water source from should. There are potentially be some contamination. The risk is high. We were also told about this subscription where people could buy into this plan to get a discount on their electric bill. Correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding was you get the subscription, you get a credit back. The difference was about 5 dollars. Which to me is too much of a risk. When you're talking about our water table, and our water is our life source, we depend on it. Okay, I'm a tax paying resident of 20 years. There are a lot of little children in my neighborhood. So I'm asking you to consider that when you vote and, um. A failure is a failure regardless if they say this battery is controlled remotely, or if it can be contained, you know, when there's a failure, something goes wrong. And a lot of times nothing can be done about it. So what happens when it does fail? What if you can't turn it off? They're really at the end of the day. I don't I don't believe I don't see that. There's any guarantee that. The risk is mitigated. So, I'm here to state that I'm very concerned about our watershed. I'm concerned about our wells and I'm concerned about our kids. Thank you.

Thank you. Folks, hold it down, please. We're giving everybody a chance to speak, and we don't applaud the opponent, so why would we applaud the speaker? Please, be common sense and courtesy.

My name is Dave Kestel. I farm just north of this proposed thing, and you guys had a very well-rehearsed presentation there. I'm just shooting from the hip with a lot of common sense here. Drainage tiles. Drainage tiles from our farm go through this project. I've dealt with developers in the past, whether they're residential or whatever it is. A developer's a developer. You're not gonna care about the drainage, the drain tiles. You can say you will. You're gonna drive in all these these galvanized I-beams all over everywhere, and you're going to hit tiles, and those problems are going to show up a year, two years, three years down the road, and I'm going to call you, and I'm going to say, I've got drainage problems. You're not going to come out and fix them. You can't sit there and tell me that you will fix them. I know how developers roll. Something else, none of us in this room might even be here then, 20, 30 years down the road when this project is done and over with, and you've planted all these Native grasses, and you're going to make the world great because the soil is going to be so great. Do any of you people farm? Do you know what soil structure is? Maybe that soil will get better in 20 years with all this stuff growing in there. You're going to go out there with all this heavy equipment. If you really do take this out and recognition it back to farmland, you go out there with heavy equipment. Any soil tilt will be destroyed. And it'll never be cropland again. The gravel roads you're talking about putting in out there, there's no way you will ever get all that gravel cleaned up to put it back to farmland. It's impossible unless you're going to go out there with tweezers and pick up every single one. It's not going to happen. Something else you need to think about, all the solar, what, 10,000 acres in Will County, your company and other companies. We might not be here in 20, 30 years, but the next generation is going to be here. These people need to eat. You're taking away productive farmland. You need to think about that. When the productive farmland is gone and you're hungry, you're out of luck. Can't eat these solar panels. Everybody needs to think about that, saving farmland. Because when it's gone, it's gone, and the good Lord is not making any more. And if you want to talk about being green, there is nothing more green than a corn or a soybean field.

Thank you for your testimony.

Please, folks, come on.

Let's just be common sense. May I ask a question of Mr. Kessel? Sure, John. Come back down. So as a fellow farmer, I would have to agree with you that there are many cases where you've had development damage your tile, and it would be easier to probably go to the moon on a spaceship than to get them to fix the tile in a timely manner if they do at all.

Yep.

Is there anything that we can attach as a condition that would help you with tile repairs? Because obviously, I know the lay of land. They're along the creek. You're north of it. and you're draining that way. So your mains are coming through their property. What is there that we can attach in the condition? Because as you know, I'm pretty sure you know, we're kind of bound by what we have to agree here. We have certain rules and we're just a recommendation board to the county board. If it goes to the county board and gets approved, it's gonna happen or be approved. I can't say it's gonna happen. I know some that have been approved that didn't happen. What could possibly help you with this drainage issue? Do you have anything on mind?

that they would absolutely positively guarantee it, we all know that works.

Well, in their paperwork that they've submitted here, as they willingly accepted as conditions to their application, they do have a $10,000 landscape bond through the township.

And that's all fine and dandy. But when the tiles are not working anymore to get somebody to fix it, you know this as well as I do, John, it's like pulling teeth.

It's hard, but a bond.

Again, bond this bond that all this fancy schmancy political nonsense, get somebody to do it. That's see, I'm, I'm talking about common sense here. I'm not talking about all these fancy hero and whereas words it's common sense here. That's how my world rolls. Um, and, and it's, I'm just stating facts. A lot of people don't like it when I state facts.

State Supreme court ruling from about 15 years ago, where the help and family in Grundy county. Had broken tile on a neighbor's farm that they would not fix and they went and fixed it themselves paid for it. And we're taking the court and the only state Supreme Court rule that they were in the right. To fix the tile on the neighbor's property, because the state statute says it is legal to block the natural flow of water. But there's nothing that said they had to fix it. But in this case, you would have the right to go on their property and fix it, which obviously you'd probably be arrested for trespassing if you went on their property among their solar panels and fixed a broken tile that you knew was not functioning. So what I'm looking for is a way that we could possibly come up with a condition that would be more binding than just their word of mouth. And how are you going to hold them to it?

But again, you can have all this stuff on the paper, but getting it to actually happen. That's the problem that I've had in the past. Everybody's sitting back there in their fancy suit and ties and all that. Oh, yeah, we're going to do this. But it doesn't happen when it comes right down to it.

Just stating facts.

So thank you.

You bet.

Let it go for now. Mr. Walsh, would you please step up?

Good evening. My name is Jim Walsh. I'm supervisor, Manhattan township. We voted unanimously our board against both the solar and the best the battery storage. We are definitely against the battery storage. We have talked to the fire department for years, and we also have approximately three other small solar parcels going in Manhattan Township, which all three of them have agreed to do no battery storage. That was from quite a while ago. Because they, they agreed, they knew that if these things catch on fire, that it's a, it's a bad deal. Anyway, we talked to the fire department. Now, I know you guys have this in your paperwork. But what what we have from their paperwork, it says. The fire department requires a connection to a municipal water system capable of providing a minimum of 750 gallons per minute for a duration of eight hours or onsite water storage dedicated exclusively to fire protection with a minimum capacity of 360,000 gallons arranged to deliver the required flow. In other words, they want a 360,000 gallon tank out there on that 50 acres to satisfy them that if this fire, if something starts on fire, So, also in the paperwork, I don't know. It sounds like they're going to start out with 1 battery system, but this says that it's eligible to be up to 5 batteries and those batteries are pretty big. I don't know if you guys looked at, but they're like 23 foot long 9 foot high 8 foot wide. they they take up a lot of space and when you look at that picture i think that that 10 acres is down pretty darn close to that creek if you look the dimensions measurements are hard to see on this map you can't tell where anything is exactly but i think it's down there pretty close to the floodplain part The village voted against it. I know my man said that this gets more valuable with the solar there. But the village Eastern Avenue has become a pretty busy thoroughfare road. And the village voted against it because they are within a half a mile of it. And I know it's going to start building in that direction.

Let me see what I got changed the location part of the reason I don't know how much of that is floodplain.

Jesus. Do you have any idea? I do not know, but I can tell you this. That road, Eastern Avenue right there. we have lived in town forever and right there there's a bridge right there where uh that creek crosses jackson creek crosses eastern avenue and i have seen that flooded where they haven't gotten through in three or four days you couldn't get through that road matter of fact there's a house right across the road that a few years ago was four foot high full of water and everything is at the same plane there basically Uh, and so I don't know what happens if we get the way crazy weather is now, if we get a flood or something. Uh, how if if a fire started, I don't know how the fire department's even going to get out there even to do this. It just doesn't it seems. A little bit crazy, Manhattan township is probably approximately 23,000 acres or something like that. But with that, even say if half of it is buildable, 12,000 acres, there seems like there should be a better place to put this solar farm than right there The Forest Preserve, we talked to them. They know they want to put a bike trail alongside of Jackson Creek there. That's the plan to come from Frankfurt to Manhattan. They've had that for a lot of years. They had them back that up some, but it seems with all of this going on on Jackson Creek there and being a flood area, there's no sense in doing this project there. It's just not the right place for it. And now we have, and we've came to you guys, we have every 1 of these companies has agreed. I know some people don't think much about it, but they put 6 or 7. Electric poles out in front of these where they hang their transformers. And when you come down the road, go into a solar farm, you can spot them from a mile away. All these big poles sticking up in a row with transformers hanging on. So all of the other 3 companies that we have. And even Earthrise agreed that they would put these transformers on pads out in the front. They can and then the only poll they have is where it hooks right on to the electric at comment. But in this paper, we talked about it at the meeting, whether these could be pad mounted. And they said, well, we got to see what the floodplain thing is. And in this in the electrical infrastructure, I think this is in there somewhere. Project customer interconnection equipment will be pad mounted or ground mounted to the extent permitted by applicable floodplain requirements. We will work with common to confirm whether it's interaction can work or not. In other words, they're not going to put them on the ground because that's floodplain through there. And so there's going to have to be all of these big poles out in the front, which. I know that doesn't mean much to a lot of people, but I have rode around the last three years and looked at solar farms. There's more solar farms around and God has green apples. And when these poles are out in the front, you can see them for miles. This is not a good place for that. 50 acres should not be along Jackson Creek, should not be there. And definitely should be no battery storage.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening.

Jeff Becker, Watershed Committee Chairman. The solar facilities are now being put in all of the watershed areas. We're seeing it all over the place. We're here today for two solar. I'm here for the one that's going in Green Garden. There are water resources all over it. Now you're right at Jackson Creek. So, I mean, when the watershed is important, and apparently the companies are going for what they consider the bottom lands or the problem areas for farming, which are right on the watersheds, which are the most vulnerable of all land in the county. So now you're going to have batteries. So I know the firefighter here said that, you know, when these plumes go up, if there's a fire, there's not really real real problem. I looked at 1 of those from California, where there was a huge fire on a battery facility, and they found toxic waste for 4 counties in the area from the plume. So, what's going to happen to the watershed, which is where all these people's wells are on. The water is going to be going, it's going to be going down there. It'll be, it'll be going out. You cannot have battery storage or these solar facilities right next to creeks because you are going to get leaching of the zinc, which is in all of the posts. And now you're going to be putting batteries right in an area that is extremely vulnerable. Particularly, you can see the floodplain on this property. All those areas are saturated with water. They have more a possibility of having problems, particularly with the leaching of zinc, which is the coating that goes on all of the steel posts. But the battery part of this, right next to a creek, of all places, why would you put it there? I mean, the company is all, this is all just about interconnection. They don't care where it's at. They were just willing to put it anywhere as long as they have an incorrect interconnection. They don't care if it's prime farmland. They don't care if it's right next to a creek. They don't care about the nature that is there. They don't care because many of them are even put right next to subdivisions. It's all about the interconnection. That's all they care about. So they are not, they're not being chosen on properties, which is not going to affect a lot of people. Or is going to damage the resources and as the chairman of the watershed committee, think about what you're doing. You're putting batteries right next to a creek where the batteries could explode and all the toxins are going to go into the creek water and all the creek water. These creeks are all connected and they all basically go eventually to the Mississippi and you're going to be adding toxins everywhere. This is dangerous. And I think you really need to think about these types of projects. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

We have any more here to speak.

I agree with what everybody has said before, but, um, give your name 1st, Annette Gil. Thank you. We've been there in Manhattan for over 5 generations and I just see our village.

Oh.

slowly being surrounded by all these solar farms, data centers. And I'm less than a mile from there. And in case you guys forgot about that Morris lithium fire just a few years ago, they evacuated over a mile radius. In our mile radius is two schools and the fire department. So are you going to evacuate all of them? We're on wells? Not right. Not right at all in 2Million dollars. That's 100 homes in Manhattan. We'll make up that 2Million dollars. And property taxes, so don't let them fool you that. Oh, we're going to give you money. No, they said something about giving money to library. I know library board members. They haven't been told anything about receiving any money. Another, with the data center coming in, they're actually taking money away from the library because they're going to annex what they do receive taxes on into another taxing body. It's just ridiculous. And that fire burned for a long time in Morris. It was in, I believe, June of 21 or 22, whatever year it was. But EPA came in and cleaned it up for over six months. I don't know how close that was to water, but I know this water leads into my water supply. And I don't appreciate it. It's just crazy. Breaking tiles is wrong too. Cedar and Leroy never flooded. I'm 60 years old. It never flooded until you guys okayed and put in a gas station. Only way to correct that flooding now is going to be a lot of money. Or you tell them to tear down their building and put tiles back in and move your building down so it doesn't mess with tiles. Tiles were put in by the government over 100 years ago to help with the land to farm because that's what we're supposed to do. And people now don't know where the tiles are. They're like, well, how come we didn't have this problem before? Oh, well, the guy that knew where all the tiles were in Willow County isn't on the board anymore. Nobody knows where the tiles are. So that's ridiculous too. But to me, it's just wrong. And I've been there when there was only a thousand people there. Now we're over 10,000. Not like that. No, but you know, pounds grow. If you've never seen the movie Soylent Green, I strongly suggest you look at that, because that's what this place, this country is turning into. But, and you say you're going to be there 20 to 40 years. Well, I just looked up on the Internet. Lithium batteries might last 15 years. So you're saying, oh, yeah, the last 40, no problem. No. You don't have any proof of that unless the Internet's wrong. I don't know. I know there's a lot of things wrong on the Internet.

Don't. But. You can have your opinion, but don't argue with him. Okay?

Yep. I'm just saying.

You're addressing the board here.

Yep. But I'm just saying. Yeah. You know, if they're going to feed you a line of bull, they wanted to buy my cousin's farmland, and he couldn't understand that contract for anything, turn it over to a lawyer, and the lawyer says, yeah, if you want to be the loser in this agreement, go ahead and sign that contract. So he's not turning any of his farmland over to solar. But we have it all the time in and I'll tell you in the last decade, Manhattan, his tornadoes that we never had in the 5 decades before that. And what it's tornadoes due to solar farms are just rip it all up and the building that was in the picture when we had the tornado 2 years ago, took the top off. And I feel sorry for whoever is building that new house. That's right next door. This is going into because they probably had no clue. This was going to be coming and they probably thought they're gonna have a nice view out their window and now it's going to be a solar form. So, that's why I say, thank you for your testimony.

Is there any more people who care to testify today on this case?

Please, I'd like you to be prepared to come up right away if you want to testify.

My name is Scott Coveney. My family's been there for four generations. I own the property across the street on Baker and Eastern. And, you know, like they all said, the, the watershed area, the properties are going to be worth nothing. I mean, Manhattan's growing like leaps and bounds right now. And they're growing that way. I talked to the mayor today. They're completely against it. So is the fire department. And, uh, I mean, they just built the fire station right there on Eastern, and it's going to keep coming that way. So they say it's away from houses, but it's not going to be soon. And, you know, nobody's or it's going to stop it because nobody's going to want to live by the by the, you know, the solar farm. So. Yeah, I mean, I don't see how this can be put through. So, thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else last call. All right, thank you. Would you care to rebut or exploit?

Thank you Mr. chair. There are a number of questions raised and concerns that I think warrant some further response from the applicant here. And I'll allow. Allow our colleagues to do so, but a couple of things I want to make sure that you touch on, you know, there were there were it sounds like the. The biggest concern, if I'm paraphrasing correctly, is the proximity to the watershed and the risk of the solar and the battery leaching or somehow infiltrating the watershed, which is the creek and then runs to the residential neighborhoods. So I primarily want you to address that and make sure that, you know. You're able to talk about the engineering side and about the risk of explosion or contamination into the ground. Um, before you do that on the on the drain tile, you know, those comments that I took very seriously, I did direct the board to our condition number 2, which proposed condition number 2, which requires response. Um, of reports of significant damage to project facilities or project related damage to agricultural drain tile. Within 24 hours of receiving notice of becoming aware of such damage. So that would be a commitment, a condition on the special use permit 24 hours response period to report of damage caused by the project to the agricultural drain tile and then repairs accordingly. There's also. Um, a doctrine in Illinois, it's based in statute developed in case of the mutual benefit easement. Um, you know, landowners are not allowed under the statute to impair drain tile. That is continuous to neighboring properties downstream. Um, blockage that we cause, and that affects upstream has to be repaired. Um, if it's a natural disintegration, then we don't have to repair it, but you can come on and repair it. But I think what the concern was, is that we would damage the drain tile and not do anything about it. Um, the commitment and the ordinance and the condition would require a response and also the statute requires that we, uh, that we repair that, um. That damage to the drain tile, so that the continuous flow of water is not impeded. Um. Yes.

So the wording on that I know can be very specific and it says significant damage. Who determines if it's significant damage?

It's significant damage to project. Here's what it says. There's actually 2 parts to this condition now that I'm reading it more closely. Thank you. So the so the 1st part is still water solar shall respond to reports of significant damage to project facilities. So, beyond wear and tear so significant, I think is something beyond normal wear and tear. So, if there's a tornado in the project facilities are damaged, then still water solar has to respond to that damage and repair its facility. So that you don't have damaged facilities sitting out there, not doing anything. so what's the difference between significant and normal wear and tear well you know solar panels will take scratches or you know that's normal wear and tear but if there's a damage to it that i think stops its functionality that would be considered a significant damage would that be fair okay so if it stops its functionality at a minimum so just that that doesn't apply to the drain tiles if there's significant damage So, drain tile is next that's the 2nd, part of this condition project related damage to agricultural drain tile within 24 hours. So that doesn't have the qualifier significant. It's just project related damage to agricultural drain tile. That would be any damage.

Okay.

So significant doesn't apply to the technically normal wear and tear doesn't apply to time.

Well, it doesn't say that. But that wouldn't be project cause damage. I would argue. Project related damage. I think, you know, yeah.

As long as we're on the drain tile thing, these pylons are driven, what, eight, nine feet into the ground, correct? And most of your field tile, four or five feet probably at the most, and now with soil erosion, things like that, a lot of them are a lot shallower than that. How do you know if you hit a tile?

Great question. In fact, when I had reached out to Mr. Kestel over email and in person, I had shared that just to compare a similar project that I've developed in Will County, we conduct a drain tile study. And so when that typically happens is we do the drain tile study after crops are harvested, just so our consultants can get a better accurate location of the drain tile. They use a combination of On site field work and a technology that allows them to to map out the drain tile. And in fact, I provided a sample drain tile study to Mr. Castle and share that as required by the building permit processable county will need to conduct the same drain tile study. That is then it looks like essentially a map of where the drain tile, if any will be is located. And then that's then submitted as part of the building permit process. And in addition to the fire inspector, the county is entitled and empowered to do an onsite inspection, especially during construction to ensure that there is no drain tile that is damaged. And so, in fact, this condition is beyond what we are already required and obligated to do. Um, so similarly for this project, we'll also conduct a drain tile study after crops are harvested and then submit that map to the county and they can use that as a, as a guide. And we will also use that as a guide to make sure that we aren't driving posts onto the drain tile. If any. Yes, yes, we typically will avoid putting posts. The posts are like very, very small. We will avoid putting posts onto the where the drain tile is located. And then just to just to further elaborate the while this is a preliminary site plan, if drain tile, if any is found onto the site, typically what we will do is during the 90% sets or final detailed engineering, we will rearrange the solar site if necessary to avoid drain tile. So you'll see at a later stage, the building permit site plan will. have that drain tile mapped onto the engineering site so that we are showing avoidance of the drain tile.

The solar fields that I've seen so far, it's pretty exact. You drive a pylon in here, you measure so many feet over, you drive another one in. I don't see them zigzagging around trying to avoid any field tile, but maybe they are and I just can't see it on a drive-by.

Yes, and typically I think we're also able, so these are rows of panels and built on racking systems. So we are able to rearrange the configuration still within the special use permit area to ensure that we're not impacting drain tile.

Let me ask one other question. One of the ladies that was up here, you know, she had mentioned the proximity to the subdivision or to the kids playing. And I always wondered, you know, kids can be kind of, you know, wondering what's going on, and if they climb over the fence, how dangerous? Is there a danger if kids get in there and start messing with these? Can there be electrocution or something? Nobody's ever addressed that, that I've heard of anyhow.

Yes, so this is a live site, and so as required by fire district emergency response, we will be required to install hazardous sign, or not hazardous, warning signs across the entrance of the facility as well as within the facility. And the proposed gate as required, or the proposed fence as required by the National Electric Code is a seven foot fence. The seven foot fence, we will be doing a chain link fence with a guardrail on top. So there's no expectation that the children can cross, can cross over a seven foot fence.

Well, you're looking at this wrong. The 4th reserve is asking for a 6 inch gap underneath it. You don't want to know how narrow the gap on your offense. I've gone under my wife legally annually. So. What you're saying is an out of line, it could happen. Um, there's multiple spots at the BP tank farm nearby me that erosion has happened because they spray the fence religiously to keep all vegetation down. And there's spots where. A full size dog could walk under the fence probably without having to duck. So, this is probably going to happen at that site, but I'm a little more. Darwinian if it got in there.

So, I would say, like, any development children can, I don't typically see children trespassing. I mean, the project itself will have these warning signs. And what I would like to also add is that I've been on a live site. Um, there are protections in place in addition to having the cable underground that prevents typically the, the risk of electrocution is with those the inverters, which are centrally located, which will have those additional warning signs. The electrical equipment is typically surrounded by a PV, like a protective equipment to prevent these electrocutions. Oh, so. That six inch gap should also allow wildlife to pass within the site and cross the site with no risk.

Is there any security or anything during construction? During construction, the safety issue is like I might go by a solar field that's being put in currently and once they're done for the day, there's nobody around. There's nobody there. So anybody can get in there and damage or play with or Get hold of equipment or whatever they want to do on the site. So, is there anything that would constrain that.

So typically when we do construction, like for this specific project, construction is expected to take place in fall of 2027. We typically don't store the excess solar panels. And typically what we'll do is trucks will be delivered. And then just based on the number of panels, based on the number of hours that they can install for that day, they will install the solar panels. Depending on if there's extra panels, and we, we do will have a warehouse off site where we will store the panel securely to prevent theft or yeah.

Oh, just FYI, the site I'm speaking of, they do store stuff there on site overnight. So just asking out of curiosity. Thank you.

Do they know that we don't want kids in the site and we don't want people on the construction sites and, you know, we take, you know, best management practices to try to prevent that with, you know, standard fence, you know, national electric code fencing and gates and locks. I mean. Can we can we can we stop a teenager from climbing our 7 foot fence? I, I. Probably not with additional measures that the county really doesn't. 1, you know, unattractive bar wires or wire on top, but. You know, it's, you know, it's we, we do what the national code requires and we hope that people act rationally.

Do do just posting the signs remove any liability on your part?

You know, I don't know what the liability would be if somebody climbed a fence, trespassed onto the property and then got hurt. I'm not a personal injury attorney. We have insurance. I, I don't know the answer to that question. I don't I wouldn't want to venture a guess on what liability would be. But I would hope that, you know, if if if a kid is old enough to. Scale a 7 foot fence and can read and can see the warning signs and can see the, you know, I don't know what they look like, but I'm assuming they have big red things and letters and, you know, like, hopefully, you know, they're smart. But I, you know, I was a teenager once and I wasn't very smart. So. We hope that people act rationally.

Have we any more questions. Okay, thank you.

Um, okay, so I think we talked about drainage. I just want to make sure we address. Um, the topics, um. That were brought up, so I think, you know, I, I mainly want to ask, um, ask our team here to talk about the, the risk of contamination, the watershed. Um, and also the California fire when it comes to you, because I know you're aware of that. So I'm going to turn over to Angela.

So I have a couple of points that I would like to address, although we did talk a little bit about the drainage component. In terms of the watershed, and I'll let James talk a little bit about the best component, but I'd like to speak about the solar component. So just for reference, Both the solar and the storage components will be UL tested. And what these UL tests are are safety standards essentially. And they're tested by nationally recognized testing laboratories across the United States. These testing laboratories themselves are certified by occupational safety and health administration to ensure that they're meeting the stringent standards for testing and quality. Part of the UL testing for safety includes a toxic characteristic leaching procedure, and many studies have shown one in particular is the NC Clean Energy Technology Center, an academic study that showed that there's no toxic, no leaching of solar into the ground. And in fact, the most common material of solar panels these days is comprised of silicon. And what silicon is is essentially sand-based solar cells, which are encapsulated in multiple layers of glass and plastic. They're fully sealed, and part of what the testing is is to ensure that these are sealed and are tested against extreme weather events, against acid. They're put in an acid bath. They're tested against wind speeds. Wind speeds, fire, as well as hail. And based on the study, and based on the standards that these solar panels will need to comply with and which the building permit at the building permit stage will ensure that these are truly certified by UL is that they meet the health and safety requirements by the county. My understanding is that the county will require that the equipment and materials will only be installed by a licensed engineer. And these will also be, again, tested by a third-party engineer. And they have to meet the risk category two, which essentially dictates that the solar panels themselves, as well as the batteries, have to meet the equivalent of expected and typical weather events in Will County. And then just to address the decommissioning and the compaction. So again, as required by Illinois Department of Agricultural AMA that we've executed, we will need to decompact. And in fact, as I had shared previously, the topsoil will not be removed. It'll remain on site. And in terms of protecting the drainage patterns and stormwater and flooding, again, Part of the building process requires us to both comply with Stormwater Water Resources Ordinance, Chapter 164 of the Will County. There's very strict requirements on ensuring stormwater runoff, stormwater pollution runoff were required to maintain drainage patterns. What we will be submitting is typically a hydrology study to the third-party engineer, who will then evaluate to make sure that drainage patterns aren't impacted. Now, there was mention of the pad-mounted equipment. Again, we committed to installing pad-mounted equipment, and in fact, we confirmed that we are able to Install a pad mount equipment onto the that specific flood zone provided that we meet a 1 foot free board. So essentially. Installing the pad such that it's at least 1 foot above the base, but elevation to ensure to protect against flooding. And then, in addition to that. It's not so clear in the site plan, but there is also a provision for compensatory storage. So how the floodplain permitting works both at the state level and at the county level is if there is any impact on a floodplain, we need to install an equivalent compensatory storage. Essentially, if I'm adding 0.1 acres of impact on a floodplain, I have to provide essentially a storm, a basin that will allow the floodplain to make sure that we're not changing or impacting a flood flood among. Outside the project boundary, and then I will call on James to talk about the best component.

Thank you. So I like to highlight events and reveal facts that we are able to digest after we review events that occur. Again, I don't like when events occur, but it gives me an opportunity to get a better picture of what is actually occurring. So I'm going to take into account the water aspect of this. And there was a battery energy storage fire in a gateway facility in California. So two parts I'm going to recognize, but I want to take away the water part. So, there was approximately 6M gallons of water used at this site for the fire that was before the industry was aware that we don't need to use an extreme amount of water again. So that will not be occurring. But the takeaway is the EPA showed up on the scene of that fire and order the incident commander, the chief, the officer in charge. to contain the water that was used so they could test it. So that 6 million gallons of water was contained from that battery energy storage fire. The results of that was that the water was allowed to be released back into the community because there were no toxins found. So that was the EPA showing up on site. So the two takeaways from that story is, one, we are no longer using an extreme amount of water. It's intermittent application of water to adjacent containers. But the takeaway is the EPA showed up on site, tested the water, and it was released into the community. So I don't like when things occur, but it gives me some substance to speak upon these points. The next point I want to highlight and recognize is there was a very large fire at a battery energy storage fire called Moss Landing. Moss Landing was a facility that was approximately the size of two Home Depots. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the size of a Home Depot. It's extremely large. Two of them. There were racks of batteries in a row. There were no fire stops. There were no codes. There were no standards. So today, that project would not be allowed to be cited. So when we look at battery fires like Moss Landing, the technology utilized was nickel manganese cobalt, which is much more volatile, not as stable as the chemistry that we're utilizing today. We have monitoring air monitoring results from that provided by the EPA and as 1 woman had noted that not everything on the Internet is always true. There was air monitoring conducted throughout that event over weeks of period of time and there was nothing to be shown. No risk to public health or safety. That's coming from the EPA. And when we look at the events as a whole, battery energy storage, I'm looking at a 23-foot steel container that's UL tested compared to something that is two Home Depots prior to codes and prior to standards. So I like to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. So We can talk confidently about best fires, best response and results of fires after they have occurred today. Highlighting events that have occurred in the past is necessary, but it shows where we've gone from an industry to where we are today. And 1 of the greatest parts of my job is working in with fellow firefighters, making sure that they are. capable of handling any events that are to occur highly unlikely that's the case so just to touch on the water and and the event that was highlighted so happy to answer any other questions if you're happening but thank you for your time i'm sorry let me just clarify that that was that fire he's talking about was the california fire that i think mr becker referenced so that's why i asked him to give some context to that but i'm sorry you had a question so before you leave we've learned a lot it's kind of like the airline industry anytime there's a major failure

Huge industry standards change and it should never happen again. What will still water solar be doing if this site gets filled with the Manhattan fire production district? Will someone like you be coming on site? Will there be yearly training? Will there be education? Will there be information distributed with them? Not somebody showing up at the door saying, oh, shoot, what do we do? Oh, wait, they submitted something 9 years ago. We can't fight. I mean, what's going to be happening?

So there's a few things, there's a few questions there that I'm glad you brought up, which I should have gotten to. So we highlighted NFPA 855, which is the code that is the standard for battery energy storage system. Fellow colleagues of mine sit on that technical code and write it and author it, and it's recognized throughout the world. So at FRA, I have a very intimate knowledge of what that code says and how it's evolving and changing. And yes, we do learn a lot through the industry as things change. When it comes to training, training is mandatory by code once a year, cannot be conducted by a train the trainer. So I can't tell someone, hey, you need to do this. It has to be a subject matter expert that provides that training. also with that being said yes the training will be done by someone who has intimate knowledge of what the response to battery energy storage is it's a very unique response it is not something that we're seeing or we're seeing a lot more of now but it is very unique and it's very specific so that training is tailored based upon the emergency response plan that emergency response plan is designed and developed to every site so we're not going to take one off the shelf and say hey chief Here's your emergency response plan in order for us to build that emergency response plan. I need their input. I need to know what their wants are, what their needs are, what their equipment they have. This is a very thorough process and it takes several meetings more than that to get through. Because I need to understand and make sure that the input that they're putting in. Is necessary and it makes sense because sometimes. Professionals who don't have all the information make recommendations that aren't necessary, but we look forward to the opportunity to continue those conversations to work together and any type of training that's needed. They are going to have that. That's that's a paramount. I wouldn't stand up here and say that because I'm a firefighter myself.

Right? So they showed up at the gate. They're not going to 1st, say, oh, here's the book for battery fires. Oh, wait, 1st, we got to determine what kind of battery it is. They should know that. Yes.

So part of the emergency response plan is there is what's called a hazards and response training course that we conduct. Very thorough, goes over what the response tactics are. There's also an emergency response action plan. In our world, we like to call it a two-page quick and dirty. I show up on scene, what do I need to do? They're gonna have the training, but for anybody who's been in an emergency situation, you revert back to your training. That card, that two-page is gonna be a guide. So they're going to have an opportunity to work through the construction part of this process, see the site before it goes live, take a site tour, have all of the information necessary, and again, Training is paramount. Everything we do is based on the training so that I can ensure you will be will be taking place. It has to by code. That's mandatory.

East department, like, just for this.

So one thing we offer, and again, when we talk about training, my perspective is I don't want to just train the Manhattan Fire Department. I want Manhattan. I want whatever contiguous municipalities are around. I want the Sheriff's Department. I want EMS. Anybody in the first responder world who may have an opportunity to go to that site, I welcome them into my training. This isn't secret. There's none of this information that I have. I'm not trying to keep it private. We open it up to the chief and say, chief, whoever you think you may need or you may want to come to this training. We openly welcome them to that because, again, I need everyone to know and to understand because it's all about safety. So, yes, the primary department would be trained and welcoming other municipalities. Sorry.

I'd like to also add that we have already started engagement with the Manhattan Fire District. And in fact, the preliminary emergency response plan that we submitted as part of this special use application was developed using the template and the requirements of the Manhattan Fire District with the understanding that the final site-specific, more detailed emergency response plan would be submitted and would have to be approved by the fire district even before we would be able to start construction And just to give you an overview of what we've included in this preliminary emergency response plan is a response for natural emergencies, severe weather, physical threat, cybersecurity, environmental accident, injuries, public notification plan, public safety. So as you can imagine, this is quite already as a preliminary plan is already very detailed based on what they were requiring of us at this stage with the understanding that like as James mentioned,

we will need to update this plan based on final best design final layout as well as providing that required animal training throughout the life of the project so then before you leave i didn't see anything in print here but i heard a speaker mr wallace state something about a dedicated public utility water line or 360 000 gallons of water on-site storage which is A huge number is that being requested by the fire department right now of your facility?

Yes. So, um, the, that specific provision that Mr Walsh had mentioned is specifically enumerated in the 2021 international fire code that is adopted by the fire protection district. However, the caveat there is that 2 things we had a follow up meeting with the with Lieutenant David who was the fire Marshall fire Lieutenant of Manhattan district. And James had shared the trend away from using water supply as a primary fire suppression source. And we, in fact, are continuing engagement with him to provide additional studies to show why water shouldn't be the first line of protection for a best type of fire. And then just to also add that if you look at that 2021 fire code, there is an exception to that requirement which states that unless the the fire official will approve an alternative means of fire protect protection measure now what we had agreed to as a condition is that we have a provisional water supply on the site plan, but the actual final amount, we said we would work with him during the final emergency response plan phase to make sure that we are addressing really the right type of fire protection mechanism or fire response mechanism.

Right, because I believe in the site plan, you mentioned that there was no volume given. Yes.

Something else that Mr. Walsh mentioned, if I heard him correctly, over the course of a lifetime in this project, there could be more battery storage units added to this project. We're just talking about the one.

I think to clarify, the system we are applying for will be allowed to install up to five containers. So we won't install more than five, but we could potentially install less than five or even more. maybe one or two, but the range typically is a five container system and the reason why we're choosing five containers is because each container is a five megawatt hour capacity. So just to explain that in terms of like a water tank, the five containers can contain up to 25 megawatt hours. But because these each container is a four hour battery, we are able to continuously discharge five megawatts, which is equivalent to our solar site over four hours. So the maximum is five IF WE WERE TO ADD ADDITIONAL BATTERIES, WE WOULD NEED TO COME BACK HERE, APPLY FOR AN ADDITIONAL SPECIAL USE PERMIT, BUT RIGHT NOW THE PLAN, BASED ON THE SYSTEM SIZE, WILL BE A MAXIMUM OF FIVE.

SO IF SPECIAL VARIANCE 2631 IS APPROVED, SPECIAL USE PERMIT FOR A BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM, I WAS ASSUMING THAT WAS ONE BATTERY, BUT YOU'RE SAYING IT'S NOT. IT COULD BE UP TO FIVE?

UP TO FIVE, YES.

And given today's technology, them 5 batteries would handle the capacity of the facility. So, yes, the, the, the up to 5 containers would be able to this is where the speaker a couple of years ago said they're getting 40% more electricity. Off the same square footage as they were when he started in the business 12 years ago. So it's not inconceivable that in 510 years, they swap out a bunch of panels and they're going from. Well, he's going to say the electrical interconnection only allows 5 megawatts, but they might store it. So they can release. It's not inconceivable that they'll want 8 or 10 bad.

I understand it, but this special use from it isn't limiting the number of batteries.

You could put on your set 5. is that is that true? It limits to 5. Is there a number of square footage? Is there how is it limited?

So, for the special use permit, I don't think there is a limit on.

It's not limited to 5. no, it's not limited to 5, but we can agree as a condition that the maximum will be 5 containers. Yeah.

Of course, it doesn't say how big they might come in twice a set outside. There's always a workaround.

Are you are our questions finished? Have you finished?

Yes, sir. Okay. Your presentation was done and our questions are finished. Okay. Now, we talked about the possibility of adding to the

But I said, number 2 is a sheet number 2 is that what I, if I took the lead on it, I would be asking that we attach as a condition. I guess there's the contents of the email from Mr. date in September 15, 2026, which includes. 2 pages of the still water solar. Summarizing the conditions is. Is that legal enough for me to say that we need to. Read these whole 2 pages to Adam as conditions. And that covers, I think what you're talking about here at the best conditions, the solar with the tile and. Storm damage the rail along the top of the fence, the landscape maintenance bond, the electrical infrastructure, the screening and investigation in the D commission.

Yep, and there are 2 votes. There's 1 on the special use permit for the solar facility and 1 on the special use permit for the storage facility. This these overlap. I just add them to both just for simplicity.

Yeah, I believe he was asking question or trying to.

Yeah, legal advice and I can just ask that this document that's provided the. Part of the conditions.

Yeah, I. I wish the documents dated that would kind of give us a better reference point, but you can, you can reference a memo. And I think what I'm looking for is just the last 2 pages of.

Yeah, it would be starting with and the pages are numbered so I can't even see the number of pages that are in the memo.

Yeah.

What if I offer it into evidence as exhibit, I think maybe AA, I'll just offer this page as exhibit AA or this, you know, does that, and then we can reference that.

I think that would work. Are you going to add a ninth condition?

Yes, that is a condition to the two SQPs. And I was also going to ask to add a condition that no more than five battery energy storage systems. Or 5 batteries, what's it?

So, just just for the record, then, um, what I'm. What I'm proposing to be added into the record is the conditions that are attached to the memo dated September 15, 2026, dated Ray 26, 055 stakeholder engagement and agreed condition summary. Um, where.

The, we are, I don't believe.

The conditions attached to the, to the memo I just referenced, which, um. Which start on page 3, after the memo title page, and is in our title grade still water, solar, LLC, special use permit applications, proposed conditions and commitments. 2 pages 1 through 8 attaching those conditions as exhibit a, to the, to the application record for both. Uh, applications. Um, for the special use, sorry for the special use permit applications for the solar and for the, for the battery energy storage systems. So, if you made a motion to, um. To approve the applications with the conditions proposed by staff and also the condition set forth on exhibit a, which I can also separately mark and enter into the record. Um, then that would, I think, cover at least that set of conditions and then the. The 2nd edition that you wanted to make, you'd have to make. That good to you, Chris.

Yeah, just make a motion to add number 9 to the exhibit a. And then make a motion and then vote on that and then make a motion to add exhibit. Well, I guess we don't need to do that. It's already in the record, right?

Point to exhibit a outcome.

Applicants applicants. I hope not to be a plaintiff.

So that is somehow been entered into the staff exhibit.

And then you're going to add that additional up to five storage on the special use permit for battery. Correct.

Maximum five battery containers, right?

Okay, you're you're ready for that now?

Yeah, sure.

Okay. Let's do that. It should be.

No, we're the chairman for ZC. 269055 special use permit. 029. I'd like to add condition number. 9, actually, it's 6. 6. Yeah, we got to 9, but condition number 6. From the special use permit for the solar energy facility. that Appliance Exhibit AA be added, which includes point one through nine on pages three and four of the memo they provided, rural county land use. One through eight, correction, one through eight. Yeah, any agreement? We got 9 on our mind, that's it. That is my motion.

I have a motion in a 2nd, may have a roll call.

For the added conditions, John, yes. Roger bettenhausen yes, Matt Garland. Yes. Lewis never at Karen more and chairman Houston. Yes.

Your chairman, I would also like to add.

Wait, do I need to put that for them?

No, for the same case, 055 special use permit 031, the special use permit for battery energy storage systems, or like the add condition number 6 that there is a maximum of 5 battery containers allowed on site.

2nd.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. I have a roll call.

One moment, please. Okay. All right. John Kiefner?

Yes.

Roger Bettenhausen?

Yes.

Matt Garland? Yes. Louis Navarat? Yes. Karen Warwick?

Yes.

And Chairman Houston? Yes.

I think that's right. We don't need the eight. Points on this battery storage because I don't think so.

I think you got it.

So, now that we have added that. We now made motion. The case in general.

solar zcd dash 26 says zero five five and five zero five five yes all three out of zero all faithful five five number seven is you're gonna make me make the motion yeah Yeah, you're doing fine.

Mr chairman's 26, 0, 5, 5, as 26, 0, 2, 9 approval, a special use permit for commercial solar energy facility. With the 5 condition provided by staff and the 6th 1 is added by the committee.

Commission back in 8. No, no.

I just, I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt the. The vote, um, we have 26, 5, 4, 2, 8 is the special use permit for commercial solar energy facility and 26, 5, 4, 2, 9 is the special use for the battery energy system. And I think you may have comingled those in your motion. Um, so I just want to, we need 2 votes. We need 1 on. 26, 5, 4, 2, 8 for the solar and then. 26, 5, 4, 2, 9 on the battery. They both have the same zoning case number, but those are the, those are the application numbers.

Your numbers aren't matching. So it's only 055. But on my paper, especially from it.

Excuse me, I think the numbers are being confused because 1 is a computer number and 1 is a case number. So, right now we are doing the vote on 26055 S, 26029 special use permit for commercial solar energy facility.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Yeah.

With all of the amended conditions. So, John Kiefner is making that motion.

That's where the S, 26.

0, 0, to ride at it.

Correct. Correct.

And scares me do the 6 conditions include I must have missed something include the memo.

Yeah, that was condition. Number 5 is everything in the memo. Okay. Yeah.

6, I said, with the 5 provided by staff and the 6 added by the commission, and then and then all well, then also the 5 battery that I added in and the other special use permit is it's 2 special 2 separate special use permits.

All right. Yeah. You're completely right and I'm sorry for interrupting.

That was all that doesn't happen off. I like to talk to the chair.

Of course, do it commission early.

Yeah, Commissioner. So the court say we have to vote yes for it. I don't agree with everything that was said here by some people. When I look at this piece of property living in Manhattan, know it. What I think the applicant has done here, or the landowner, even they moved it away from the road. They put it on the backside of what you call a natural greenway of Jackson Creek. So it's not in the worst possible spot. I heard arguments that if the batteries leak, they're going to contaminate the waterway. This is all well, and good, but I think that's a how Mary passed is my farm is a mile and a half from the creek. But I know right where all my drainage goes. If I put a battery energy storage system on my farm, and I've gotten the mailings, I can make 35,000 dollars right now. If I sign a contract to put a quarter acre battery energy storage system on my phone. That's the offer I'm being offered right now and I think catches fire water on it. If they don't contain it with the right way, it's going to go down into the creek behind supervisor Washington property and flow. So I won't buy the argument that whether the solar farm is next to the creek or a half mile from the creek, it minimizes much the contamination. But yes, they could contaminate. But once again, we have a battery energy storage system, which scares the bejeebies out of everybody. So I will have to reluctantly vote for the first solar special use permit. But I will vote no on the second one to appease the neighbors and my own soul behind it. I don't want to breathe toxic smoke when the wind's out of the northeast and there's a battery fire if there is. I have to breathe toxic smoke from one of my neighbors that burns plastic and garbage all the time, but I haven't had the cojones to call the county and complain about it. But I've had days I was cooking on my grill and I'm like, I can't even stay outside because it stinks so bad.

It's not a good fire until you put a tire on top, right?

That's the school of logic from farmers 60 years ago. We've learned. So that's where I'm sitting on this. Anybody got any way to convince me otherwise? I mean.

Is everybody made up their minds? Can we go ahead and start the process? Okay, I'd like a motion then please.

Okay, motion was for John Kiefner second by Karen Warwick facility only remote. Correct, so we're voting on the commercial solar facility. And that was John Kiefner.

That's a vote yes.

Roger Bettenhausen?

No.

Matt Garland?

No.

Louis Navarette? Yes. Karen Warrick? And Chairman Hustepen? No. Two to four.

On the same case, 055, special use 26-031, item number two, approval of a special use permit for a battery energy storage system with five conditions provided by staff and the sixth one added by the commission, limiting the number of batteries.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. John Kiefner?

No.

Roger Bettenhausen?

No.

Matt Garland?

No.

Louis Navarette? Karen Warrick? And chairman Houston 06.

And, uh, we can only vote on 1 more variance correct? And special, um. Vc 055 variance 26 dash 1, 6, 0 approval variance for number required going from 5 times to 2 times.

Okay, the 2nd may have John Keith. Yes. Roger battenhausen no. Matt garland Lewis never at. Aaron work and chairman who step in no. Fails.

I guess they don't need to come for the next 1 then this 1 fails.

That's up to the applicant.

So, let me understand this week that vote ended here. So they we have basically killed their pollinator plan, but they can reapply in a certain time.

So they can submit an appeal, which would go to county board. They have 15 days basically, as of tomorrow to submit an appeal application.

Imagine they're gonna have to do on your score.

Our next case is ZC-26-064-S-26-033 and V-26-174 and V-26-176 and V-26-177 and V-26-178 and V-26-185 and V-26-186. And this is, uh, going to occur in money township. Uh, and I like red patent is our.

So, I will be presenting zoning cases. E. C. twenty six. Um, oh, six, four, the owner is Steven Malter. Uh, the agent is Eliza Mitchell of U. S. solar doing business as well. Solar LLC. The applicant is requesting a special use permit for commercial solar energy facility. The zoning case consists of two parcels. Variances are parcel specific. Therefore, the applicant is requesting variances for plant height and number of required mowings. The applicant emailed staff that they wanted the variance for side yard solar setbacks on the north side for each parcel to be withdrawn as the equipment that was encroaching was moved. and they submitted a site plan showing those changes. So those last two variances that are on that screen in red have been withdrawn by the applicant. So this is the parcel outlined in red per GIS Areals. The property is actively farmed. The parcel is within Green Garden Township. This is the zoning map of the property. The subject property is zoned A1 per the PLAS survey. The property is a total of 40.5 acres in size with 663 feet of lot frontage along 80th Avenue. The property is deemed a conforming A1 parcel. And then this is the PLAS survey showing the property boundaries. And then this is the updated site plan. So the applicant is proposing a 4 megawatt commercial solar energy facility with approximately 9,022 panels and 128 arrays. The panels will be mounted on a single-axis tracking system, allowing for them to rotate to capture the sun. The applicant is proposing access... to 80th Avenue. Access permit will be required at the time of permitting. Road authority approval will also be required before the permit can be issued. The applicant will be leasing the subject property based on the lease agreement. The facility could exist on the property for approximately 20 years with the option to extend the lease four times for five years each, which means the facility could operate for up to 40 years. A glare analysis was conducted using Ford Solar. The report analyzed 18 homes as part of the study. The report concluded two of the residents were predicted to receive green glare and three were predicted to receive yellow glare. Of 12 route receptors, one route South Monet Court truck height was predicted to see green glare at zero degree tilt for the panels. One airport flight path runway 18 at Wicks Airport was predicted to see both green and yellow glare at zero degree tilt. Staff does note that the report does not account for existing vegetation or proposed landscaping or screening. Just for reference, green glare is typically associated with events such as glint bouncing off a car windshield, A window or a pond or some other water surface of all yellow, yellow glare is associated with the flash of a camera equipment pads are proposed that can contain the inverters and transformers. All equipment pads are proposed to be along the northern property line. A noise study was submitted as part of the application, stating that the expected noise levels will fall under the Illinois Pollution Control Board noise regulations. However, this was based on previous conceptual site plan where the equipment pads was proposed. on the area in the middle containing wetlands. The revised preliminary plan shows inverters closer to residences, which could pack the compliance. So staff has added a condition requiring an updated noise study to reflect the current preliminary site plan be submitted at the permitting that shows compliance with the IBC noise levels limits for residential areas. The applicant submitted an interconnection agreement with ComEd Uh, that was signed on May 29th, 2026, and that can enter to with the Illinois Department of agriculture on May 18th, 2026. and for the physical characteristics site, this site, this is the view looking South at the subject property, showing the location of the proposed access road. This is the view looking North from the subject property at the adjacent property. This is the view looking at the proposed location of the solar facility. A view looking south at the adjacent property. A view looking east across 80th Avenue at adjacent property. A view looking north down 80th Avenue. A view looking south down 80th Avenue. Uh, applicant, uh, application, smell requirements, the Red Bull is required by Illinois signing requirements. Black old, uh, was, uh, permitted for counties to require the application and submit all required submittals for the case to proceed to public hearing. Uh, application is not considered complete until approvals are received by each item listed on screen. Uh, so there was the pre steering results indicated that the proposed solar facility, uh. Are not required to file notice with the therefore no additional filing is anticipated for these facilities or the report gave it a lease of 173, which puts it in county areas and productive. Farmland up the. So, in water conservation is commented about a field tires being rerouted rather than plug and that they need to develop a conservation plan with a train tile and a drain tile map both countersigned by the. As part of the conservation plan with the soil and water conservation district, the U. S. fish and wildlife report was submitted ID and our report was submitted and did not identify any protected resources. The state historic preservation office, they submit correspondence and that. Letter the state potential for archaeological resources on site. So, a condition recommending to require proof of archaeological study that has been reviewed and approved by state historical preservation office has been added proposed equipment have been certified by you. Uh, L companies and industry and industry standard certification for solar, a liability insurance was provided a plenary plan and emergency response plans have been submitted a final emergency response plan as required to be reviewed by the protection district. Construction and maintenance routes utilize I-51 access and Monee Manhattan Road and access the site at 80th Avenue. The Green Garden Township Highway Commissioner provided email notifying the project at this stage and the road survey and road permits will be required at the time of permitting. A lease has been submitted on file and then West would complete a level 2 field wetland delineation for the project area. The wetland delineation report will be reviewed by the county's engineering division during the applicable permitting process to verify their accuracy and compliance with the county's water resource ordinances. And then as you know, due to equity solar versus County of Grundy, the listed special use criteria is not applicable for commercial solar energy facilities. Um, and then to go over the variance request, they review based on criteria outlined on the screen and more detailed analysis can be found on your packets. But to summarize for the variance for mowings and plant heist, the state encourages commercial solar facilities, use pollinator friendly plant plant species native to Illinois for a native plant species to grow effectively. They need to grow higher than 13 inches. The applicant did submit a plenary operations and maintenance plants. as part of their submittal outlining how mowing will be done. Staff will require final version of the operation maintenance plans at the time of permitting. Okay, um, and then, yeah, the next 1 does not apply since they withdrew the variances. So that for agency comments, staff to re, uh, receive comments from Moni fire protection district, stating their opposition to touch such tall vegetation due to its fire growth potential. And then after the staff report was published, staff received an injection letter from Green Garden Township saying concerns about its proximity to the subdivision. We also received an injection letter from a concerned citizen mentioning lack of screening for the site. Staff also received a letter from the Forest Preserve. Districts stating no major comments or concerns, but just wanting to reiterate the importance of sustainable practices into the development maintenance plans, such as quality native species and then the wildlife fence. And then also monitoring wildlife mortality incidents at the property. And then these were all sent out as memos to PCC. And sorry. And then so staff is recommending approval of the special use permit for commercial solar energy facility with six conditions shown on screen. The sixth submission has been added as staff received an email from the applicant requesting a condition bad regarding filling gaps in the existing tree line along the north and west property line. So that is that sixth condition in red that has been added. So that will, like earlier, need a motion to be added to the special use conditions. And then staff is also recommending approval of the forbearance is related to plant height and mowings and I can answer any questions.

I have no questions.

I'll be the bad guy condition 6. so we're seeing this a lot of cases. If you go to the aerial view, there is a significant amount of screening on the North and the. West side of the property where the solar facility, and I'm assuming condition 6 is addressing some of the breaks in that 3. exactly because yeah, there's some gaps on the North side where you can see through it and that will be to fill those gaps. That's already there. Is that on the applicant's property? Is that on the neighboring property?

Uh, with that, it's, it's hard to tell on it because it is, like, right on property line. Uh, but that will, we will require, like, a landscape plan tree survey to help identify what's on the applicant's property and what's not. Uh, because for the screening, it does need to be on the applicant's property to count.

Because we know we just went through a hellacious amount of storms and everybody found out which trees could take it and which ones couldn't. So, to me, it's wrong that the screen should be on the neighboring property. So, if those trees come down become diseased, or they just decide they want the firewood, take them down. Well, now they're looking at a solar facility that doesn't have screening these that facility. So you're saying that's not allowed for the solar facility to use trees on the neighboring properties part of the screen.

Yeah. So, for screening, it needs to be on the property. The the trees.

Okay, so so technically there's the same gaps, but it doesn't identify whether those gaps are. The neighbors are there.

Yeah, well, with the landscape plan, we'll need to have permitting further figure out. Yeah, exactly what the tree existing trees, which property line they are on.

Okay, thank you. Okay.

Okay.

Are there any concerned citizens or objectors to this case? There are. Fine. Thank you. When it's your turn, please go and line up against the wall so that we have consecutive motions. Unless someone is incapable of standing for that period of time, then we'll allow you to come up and sit close up here.

May I hear from the principals? Agent Elijah Mitchell. Good evening.

My name is Elijah Mitchell, representative of this project, USS Will Solar. And I have some of my colleagues here who will be able to speak as well soon. Um, next slide. Thank you. So we are U. S. we are U. S. solar. We are an experienced developer that is headquartered in Minneapolis, but Illinois is 1 of our primary markets where we are. My colleague and I are born and raised here. We have been developing for over 12 years across the country. But, like I said, with Illinois being 1 of our primary important markets as well, building. Over 100 projects where we primarily like to own operate a vast majority of these projects where we take a lot of lessons from them and commit to best practices with community engagement as well as good land stewardship. For all of these projects next slide please. Well, actually, I just spoke to this, actually. These are some of the other states that we are active in as well. Next slide, please. So, part of our land stewardship is we. Endaringly, but also quite seriously call these community solar gardens and that's because yes, these are solar projects, but we also very much intend to maintain native habitat underneath the panels and work with the community and the landowner in any way possible to further support the community. 1 thing that we are actively doing, which. might be the next slide actually, something called agrovoltaics, which is a process of having some kind of, whether it be farmed crops or animals underneath, such as sheep, we are implementing more and more possibilities like this for many of our projects to further benefit the community and the landowner around. Next slide, please. So, in terms of community engagement for this project, we've held 2 open houses 1 in August and the other 1, just last week, actually, where we specifically wanted to engage with green garden township where this project is located to get their comments questions and concerns and be able to amend the project wherever possible. Some of those amendments included the condition that was mentioned earlier. Thank you. As well as removing the variances for. Including some of the equipment within the setback, we've gotten quite a lot of feedback for that, that that was a large concern for the community. So, even though it was going to be an efficiency loss for the project, in terms of how well electricity was able to be balanced in the project, we decided to go forward with that process anyway, and remove that equipment in that setback and does remove the variance. Next slide please. There are many different benefits community that this project would enable, um, such as increased tax revenue, um. Include a community impact donation, which is a standard practice that we do, but we specifically wanted to commit to giving this money to, uh, green card and township in particular. Um, as well as bill credit savings, so the community has the opportunity to subscribe to these projects, which will guarantee somewhere between 10 to 15% reductions in electricity bill with no added effort or work. All they would have to do subscribe and they would continue to receive their bills as normal just at a reduced rate each month. As we've mentioned before, the natural habitat underneath the panels not only would enable fostering regeneration for the soil, but it would enable bees and butterflies and other pollinators to have natural habitat to also be able to pollinate other agricultural land nearby. And included in this project are infrastructure upgrades, of which we will be reconducting, I believe it's about two miles of lines to the project, which will enable further stability and opportunity for interconnection for other homes or businesses nearby in the community.

Next slide, please.

Here is an aerial view of the project. The main product area is in the pink rectangle, whereas the property is in the green rectangle. As you can see, the project is located far towards the back of the property with the main access to the property being on the eastern side of the property surrounded primarily by agricultural land to the north and south and residential land to the east west. Next slide please. So, here is the site plan very noticeably. There is a large blue belt going through the middle of the project. This is wetland, which we have an expert here tonight to speak further to. We've done quite a lot of due diligence to identify the existence of this wetland and have specifically designed a project multiple times to. mitigate any impact on this wetland and thus how it would be able to impact the wider community. Partially as our standard practice, partially because we know that impacting the wetland could be detrimental potentially depending on the amount and based on community feedback that there was a large concern for what the solar project could do if we were to build within the wetland. So again, At the cost of efficiency and, uh, to some degree size of the project, we have specifically designed to be completely around the project and only having. 1, small impact, which is where the culprit would be located towards the apex of the. The hill shape I can, I'll call it, um, of the waterway. I believe that might be the last slide. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay. Thank you. Um. If you if anyone has any questions or comments, I would be glad to. I'll address them.

Thank you.

Oh, let me ask you a question for you then.

The, the pollinator, I've never gotten a good answer on this. Don't quite understand still how it works. But what the pollinator is part of your project is that part of your citing for the application from it through the state of Illinois.

Are you asking was was that a parameter to determine the sighting?

Or even the permitting through the state of Illinois. So that what I was told years ago. Is there's a pollinator scorecard correct? So, I guess I should back up. Never mind that was community solar projects. All right. I'm off base. I think I think I've answered my own question. Okay. Community solar projects had to be permitted through the state and it was a lottery system and having a pollinator friendly impact. So you're nodding your heads and this says commercial solar. I had to sneak off and get a drink, go to the bathroom spot behind the eight ball. I'm sorry.

Not a problem, thank you.

But I guess the greater point here, we just had a solar case vote. And the whole community wants us to vote no one.

We have staff who wants to talk.

Okay, you can continue your point. I asked repeated from the people that come up here to check, give me a reason that matches the county codes and also can be used in the courts. To win a lawsuit, if the county was to say, no, and the judge turned around and say, you have to prove it anyway. And I think from the last vote, I just figured out. That this board has actually found a way. Oh, 2 solar carriages and the possibility of them occurring. And that's what was going on in my mind, the community solar projects need the pollinator. So, in the previous vote, we just killed the pollinator project for that solar farm, which, if that was a community solar project makes it harder for that to actually come to fruition. thing, but it doesn't matter. You're not a community solar project.

This is a community solar project. This is a community solar project. Yes.

Okay. So I was just going to interject that the original points-based system now is they earn so many points and they're basically granted a permit from the state is how it evolved. Originally, it was a lottery system, but further acts came forward and now it's basically project maturity. shown by how many points they can accumulate to be project ready and one of those is the illinois pollinator friendly site program which is the native pollinators there is if we we as a board have the right to vote no on the pollinator portion and it hurts their score sheet okay

Is that score sheet administered through the Illinois Department of Agriculture?

I believe it is a program that is derived from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources where they have a certain amount of predetermined seed mixes for the site that they should be using for the pollinators. And then I believe part of that program they submit as part of their application to be deemed appropriate or not.

So, Roger, what I've done is I've just done what nobody's been able to do for me in the previous 25 or 30 solar cases that I've heard. And I don't know if that was really my intention, but.

I said this before I take the consideration where the. Planning and zoning condition, so just because a property can be sold in a certain way. If it doesn't meet a certain plan, I mean, if it's. Constructive to surrounding properties, to subdivisions, to water supply. I'm going to vote no on that.

Right. And we may have different opinions as to what that entails.

You said that before.

Right. Okay. So. I'm sorry, I completely distracted you, but you asked those questions. So this is indeed a community solar project. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

May I ask really quickly, why would you not want native pollinators under the panels?

That's why I said it mixed views.

I'm a beekeeper, and I'm a person that has despised mowing. But I know that half the people in this room see anything over two inches tall weed, and they want it mowed. I've had people come to my farm and say, when are you going to mow your weeds? And I'm like, weeds? four foot tall grass blowing in the wind. I've got 80 acres of sunflowers growing right now on my farm. So I'm different than most people. But what I have just pointed out is the people have a tool with this commission to legally stop, slow down or prevent solar facility siting. Something that I've been asking in the seven years that I've been sitting through these, give me something That work and that doesn't mean that I'm going to vote against the pollinators.

I understand.

Yes, but I just pointed out something there.

And if I may add, it's not a pejorative against your company or any particular company, but we have seen solar farms. Where the wage were climbing over an offense and nobody has moved them. They've brought in no goats. They brought in no sheep. They haven't done anything. They just let it go a heck.

So, I can speak to that personally, because. I was just dealing with that with a couple of my other projects, maybe 2 months, a month or 2 ago and just had a follow up email. I think yesterday about that, because the neighbors landowners were concerned about that possibility of. weeds growing in the project, especially because right now, at least for those projects, they have not fully gone into construction yet. So it doesn't have native pollinators on the on the properties or ground cover plants at the moment. We immediately got a team out there to address that because we knew the importance of the aesthetic of how ugly it would be to have weeds just growing willy-nilly on the property. But also we knew that that would potentially cause the weeds to go into the neighboring properties and affect their crops. And that is definitely not something that we would want. I can say the slogan of being a good neighbor, but we are serious that we did not want to have any weeds spreading anywhere. So we normally had a. A normal contractor that we work with for many of our products in Illinois, but. They were not available at the time. So we've contacted other contractors to get out there to expedite the process. And that's what we're doing again as of yesterday or this morning. So I'm there with you. We definitely do not want just any weeds growing under the panels. We definitely would only want flowering plants and native habitat.

Well, you're a native of this state, so you know that, for instance, Canadian thistles are illegal here, and you could be fined $50 per plant. At least it used to be. Maybe it's more now. I don't know. They've raised the prices on everything else.

I know a couple of places the state should go. They could solve their budget issues.

Yeah. You should suggest that.

I have a question regarding Des Moines. How far, I know you have to be 50 feet off prop, off the property line, okay, from the fence line where the, like your hedges and stuff are to the road, how far of that are you responsible to? Are you just responsible for right inside the perimeter of your panels?

That is something that we work out with with the landowner on an individual case by case basis. Um, I don't remember off the top of my head what it was in this case, but typically, if there's not sufficient land, um, between the fence and the property boundary line. Maybe let's say 30 feet, for example, um, and they're not able to grow any crops or do anything productive with it. We would. Put it in our agreements and at least to also manage that property lease with the landowner.

Correct. That's how that works. Okay, thank you.

And with that, it's typical that we would manage it outside of it, especially if it's not able to be productive land.

Okay, thank you.

We have any more questions from anyone? No, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Now you could share presentation completed here.

Can I call a concerned citizens? OK, may I have the concerned citizens come down please?

Watch your step there.

Yes, good evening. My name is Steve Becker. I'm an attorney, and I represent Daniil Gustafson, who is an adjoining landowner, and I had spoken with the state's attorney's office. We wish to conduct examination of witnesses and do cross-examination this evening, but I don't know how late you usually go, and so I wanted to check first.

We have technically no limit. However, if you could make it terse and brief, we'd be very pleased. I know you, I know you have a job to do. But if you could do it with an equity that would make us all very happy.

Okay, because I know there's people in the public who want to speak as well. Yes, that's correct.

So, I think he was wondering if we're going to cut the meeting off at 9 or 9 30 or 10. correct.

I'd not like to go past 10 o'clock Sir.

Okay.

Okay.

I would not like to either. So, okay. All right. Well, then I will try to get my witnesses on as quickly as I can then.

Thank you.

Be careful on the stairs, please.

I think I'll take 1. Great. Thanks. Yes, you got 6.

Thank you, sir.

All right before I begin, I just want to make some general objections on behalf of my client. It is just for the record is our position that the state solar statute, which is the statute controlling county solar ordinances is unconstitutional under the procedural due process equal protection and separation of powers. It is also our position that the Will County Land Use Department's policy and practice of deferring matters later to the building permit stage is likewise unconstitutional in violation of procedural due process because it eliminates the rights of adjoining landowners and the public to make timely objections and for the board to vote on those. Um, and lastly, I noted the staff said that because of the equity solar decision that they were not considering any of the normal LaSalle and Sinclair factors, which have always been considered in special use permits. So I did want to note for the commission that there has been a case that has come down after equity solar. It's called the tape road solar case out of Winnebago county. And in that particular case, the fourth district said that, in fact, boards may consider the normal and Sinclair factors. And the fourth district also ruled that the equity solar decision was wrongfully decided. So I just want to put that in the record because I'm imagining that this is going to go up to the Illinois Supreme Court and it may be that all of the decisions that have been made so far in Will County will be declared illegal on that basis. So I just wanted to put that in the record. So with that, I would like to call our first witness and this is Daniil Gustafson.

Hi, my name is Daniil Gustafson. Where do you currently reside? What's your address? I live on 8217 West Mooney, Manhattan Road.

And how long have you lived at that location? I've lived there for 46 years. And in 2003, were you one of the founding members of the Watershed Committee, a volunteer organization located in Green Garden that was headed by Tom Becker?

Yes, I was.

And in your 20-acre property, is this adjacent to the proposed special use application in case number ZC26064?

Yes, my 20 acres is to the north, and it's to the west of Pete Galvin's. So Pete Galvin's parallels 80th Avenue, and then I'm right there in the middle. I'm right above The high point of that blue line.

All right. And where is the Charlevoix subdivision located with respect to your property? Charlevoix is to the west of me. Okay. And are there branches of Fort Creek going through the Charlevoix property?

There are.

And is that considered a Waters of the United States? It is. And in your particular property, would it be correct to say that during rainstorms, the storm water runs downhill from Mr. Galvin's property through your property into the subject property?

It does. Pete Galvin's property is higher than mine. And I have, there's like four or five locations where the water comes through. And this year it was particularly notable because of the heavy rains that we had. And it definitely drains onto my property and then from my property, it drops down into the lower property, which is the proposed solar property.

All right, discuss it. And now I'm going to direct your attention to ejectors exhibit number one. If you could look at that, please.

She had this.

Okay, yes, I see it now.

All right, thank you. If you could please look at the second page there, the larger map. Do you see your property located on that map?

I do.

And is that in the darker area just north of the property?

It's in the darker area. There's a blue pond and there's a tree line, several trees that are in the middle of the southern border of the property.

And on objectors exhibit number one, do you see a discernible swale or stormwater pattern going from Mr. Galvin's property through the lower portion of your property?

Yes.

And at the southwest corner of your property, does this map show a stormwater pattern going from your property directly into the subject property?

Oh, definitely.

And is it correct that on the southern portion of your property you have a barn, which for many years you've stabled your horses? Correct. And is it correct that you regularly visit the southern portion of your property and are aware of stormwater patterns there?

Oh, I'm regularly there because I cut the whole perimeter of my property two or three times a month.

Okay.

And is the southern portion of your acreage often wet and unusable for machinery?

There are some times that yes, I cannot mow that I get stuck.

And I'm now going to have you look at the second map that's on Exhibit 1. That's a enlargement. And here again, do you see a discernible stormwater pattern which runs southward from your property into the subject property?

Yes, it's in the southwest corner.

And now I want to ask you that turning your attention to the spring of twenty, twenty six. Did you observe a large excavator digging and moving dirt in the middle of your neighbor? Steven motors agricultural property.

Yeah, we were. Kind of alerted because there was allowed tractor noise to the South of us for several days and we went back to the corner to see what was going on and it looked like they were digging up trees and it looked like I don't know if they were building a trench or it just seemed like they were digging along the tree line. Um. below where the stream pattern is. So it kind of was from the corner down at the bottom, maybe along the property line. I'm not sure if that's a property line or what it is. But definitely they were digging with a bucket and they were bulldozing or taking out trees.

And was this in the area that shows the what appears to be a stream in the property?

I think it was actually, I don't think it was actually the stream part because there are no trees there. That's kind of a swale. That looks like a ditch. That actually looks like a ditch. But further to the south of that is like a tree line. So I don't know. I don't know if they were gonna divert the water. I have no, I don't know. But it was several days worth of construction. And in 46 years, I've never seen a machine back there doing anything except farming.

Right, and that was a spring of this year that you saw that it was before the crops were put in.

Right.

And in 2026 was the. Property there planted in a crop, or was it left fellow.

It was left it's planted in a craft now, but when I saw the excavator there, it was not planted.

And do you recall last year was the property planted or was it left fellow?

No, it was planted.

Are you aware of any structures that are being currently built in the center of Mr. Moulter's property? I have no further questions. Thank you. Any cross examination by the other side?

Yeah, I'm sorry you said that, you know, that is a waters of the US. How did you make that determination?

I worked with Tom Becker and he did research on it.

So he has an approved jurisdictional determination from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?

I believe so, yes.

For our property?

Oh, not for your property, but for the creek.

For what portion of the creek?

I'm not sure.

Okay. So are you aware that only the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can determine jurisdictional status and only the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can make the determination if something is the waters of the U.S.?

Yes, I understand that.

Okay. I do understand that. You do not have an approved jurisdictional determination for a portion of the region on our property. So you cannot state for a fact that that is the waters of the U.S.?

Okay. Okay.

Okay. So you said that the fields have been actively cropped? Yes. And you said that that ditch appears to be... Part of the copying it's used for agricultural drainage.

There's clearly that. That thing that goes up like a hump is clearly a ditch.

Okay. So it's an agricultural ditch in an agricultural field. There's no plants in it. But the ditch is in an agricultural field, moving water away from the agricultural field. I don't know. I'm not back there watching it every single day.

I'm just saying that there's a deviation there.

Okay. Are you aware of any agricultural exemptions that would allow a farmer to do maintenance on an agricultural ditch?

No, I didn't say that. I just said in 46 years, I've never seen a machine back there excavating. Okay. That's all I said. Thank you for your time. Uh-huh. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Gustafson. Thank you. Next, I'd like to call Stephen Moulter, please.

Okay. I think I can get that.

Thank you, sir. Could you please state and spell your name for the record? My name is Steve Moulter, M-O-L-T-E-R. Mr. Moulter, are you the owner of the property at 25740 South 80th Avenue in Monee? Yes, I am. And are you the individual seeking the special use permit application in this case? Yes, and how long have you owned the property?

Uh, I bought out there. Early to mid, and you currently live at the address. Yes.

And when did you enter into a lease agreement with U. S. S. will solar. What's that when did you enter into a lease agreement with U. S. S. will solar. I believe it was about two years ago, I believe. And is it correct that the lease was for the placement of a solar energy facility on your property? Yes. Is it correct that Mr. Pete Galvin owns the property to the north of your parcel? In the front section, yes, Miss Gustafson then owns the property next to that. Yes. And is your property higher or lower than discuss since property.

It would be a little bit lower. It drops from their property. Yes.

And during rainstorm events, does your parcel receive stormwater patterns from both Mr. Galvin's and Ms. Gustafson's property?

Yes, especially this year. It was quite a wet year.

And do you have an intermittent watercourse or stream that goes through the middle of your agricultural property?

I wouldn't call it a stream. It's a waterway. Okay, how would you describe it? As a waterway. I've been excavating for almost 40 years. All my work has been with farmers, pond owners, Army Corps, Will County. I just did some stuff with your guy, Greg, for three years.

And when you have a stormwater event is the water move from your property down into the charlevoix area toward for creek.

It actually goes to the South. Uh, Southwest. So, I don't believe it goes into charlevoix. Where does the water go then? Well, as you can see the curve, it goes into the property South.

and then it goes Southwest into the farmland over there.

And in 2026, did you leave your land fallow or did you plant it?

No, it's always been planted. Okay.

And how were you able to determine if there were any farm wetlands on your property if you were planting the property?

I think we need to clarify. When I purchased the property, there was never any designated wetlands on there. Glen Pauling, which was my neighbor to the south and his son, farmed it up until about 2010. I looked on Google Maps. What they were doing when they were farming it was running the whole thing east to west. And through that time, about 2010, I was out there walking my property and I noticed they had cut five field tiles. Most all of them were from the tip of that blue line up there. The field tile, the main one runs down where you've got it blue all the way to that Southern hedgerow where just on my side of the property line, there's a surface grate. used to be until Glenn basically buried it. But through his many years of farming there and just running through that, he cut that field tile. And so in the springtime when they saw my equipment out there I was maintaining my field tile that runs through there and she's right there never was any machinery and anything done and after about 2010 when I found Glenn had cut all those and he wasn't going to fix them I ended my farming lease with Glenn and went with Bob Worms and now Jim farms it So I don't understand. And I told the solar people, I don't understand where they came up with a wetland when my field tiles all go that way. I mean, I hear from everybody here, all this concern about field tiles and, you know, that's a field tile and I believe in maintaining them. I grew up as a wildlife photographer in Minnesota. I work for the Shedd Aquarium for 15 years, and I've been excavating for almost 40. I believe in wildlife. I raise bees. You can tell the ponds there I raise fish.

Um, yes, I appreciate that just in, um. For time's sake, I just want to continue with the questions if I could. Okay, thank you. Um, could you please look at objectors exhibit? Number 3 should be right in front of you there. Where's where's 3. It should be after 1 and 2. aquatic resource yes and if you could look on page six please and there's a section toward the bottom entitled water sources and it mentions in there that there are three water courses within the delineation area of your property which quote all appear to be excavated manual ditches my question is when you originally

Take your time.

So the report mentions that there were three water courses and it says all appear to be excavated manmade ditches. So my question is, when you purchased the property, was there a main water course running through or is this something that you built into your property?

I never built anything in there. Like she said, there's never been any equipment on my property until this year. I've been working hard. I haven't had time to go and maintain my property. So this year when I retired, that's what I did.

And were you the one who was running the excavator this year? Yes, I was. Okay. And what exactly were you doing?

replacing the field tiles. They were all clay tiles that Glenn had crushed by driving over them. And so I dug them out and I put in the black corrugated plastic ones.

And did you remove trees that were in the area as well?

Yeah, because it basically grew up after those. If you look on Google Earth, you'll see after 2010 that it was no longer farmed in that center section. and because he had cracked those tiles and it got wet. So when he didn't farm it anymore, brush grew up in there.

And did you inform US Solar that you were doing excavating work in the area where they were going to be performing their project? I don't remember.

I don't believe.

And it would be correct that they prepared their review just several months after you were doing excavating work. Is that accurate? No. Okay. I have no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Milter.

Any cross-examination?

So just to reiterate, that drainage swale, the hill-shaped, has been on that property since you bought it? Yes. And so it's always been conveying water during wet times and during dry times when the tile is functioning, it's dry?

Yes.

Okay. So you weren't seeing evidence of water standing there, I believe you said, until 2010? Yes. Correct. And then after 2010, you were seeing wet spots during probably during high precipitation events. And then it would be moving away as the tile functioned and move the water off site. Slowly, very slowly. In your review, have you looked at the wetland delineation report that was completed? No, I haven't. Okay. I will withhold any questions on that until later. So thank you for your time. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Mulder. Um, next I'd like to call, uh, Jeffrey Becker please. Could you please state and spell your name for the record?

Sure. Jeffrey backer. J. F. R. E. Y. backer B. E. C. K. E. R. Are you currently the chairman of the watershed committee?

I am. Um, is the watershed committee a local volunteer organization in will county?

Yes.

And when did the organization begin two thousand and three. And how long have you been a member since two thousand and three. And who was the former chairman of the watershed committee?

My brother Tom.

And when did you take over the role of the chairman just this past year? And has your knowledge with respect to the watershed come from training or from experience from experience. And in around twenty ten to twenty twelve was the watershed committee involved with the will county government in reviewing and updating their wetland ordinance. Yes, we were. And as a member of the watershed committee, have you ever had a situation where paid environmental specialists or engineers deny the existence of wetlands on a particular property and then later had those reversed? Yes. Can you please tell me about that experience?

It was actually a property next to us. It was a subdivision that was going in Tuscan Hills and it paid environmental specialist was hired and they said there was no wetland. We knew there was a wetland because we live right next to the property and the farmer had told us that there was a wetland. So he put in a pine forest through the state because he could never cross the wetland during the spring. So, we knew it was a wetland. So, anyway, the, the project got passed because they didn't, they believe the environment specialist and not any of the neighbors. My brother, Tom, and I, we went to the army core, the army core found that it was a wetland. It's a wetland. That's actually directly connected to 4 Creek. Um, and so it's a waters of the US, and it has recently actually in a court case, it was just determined. It is a waters of the US. It is a weapon, but it's attached directly to the creek for enough time of the year that it's considered a waters of the US.

Is that under the second decision by the US Supreme Court?

Yes. Even under the second decision, where they removed a lot of the protections of the wetlands, even in that case, it is still a waters of the US.

And have you visited miss Augusta's property in the past hundreds and hundreds of times? She's one of our dearest friends.

Right?

And have you been to the southern most part of her property?

Yes. Oftentimes I would help her. She had horses back there and I would help her take care of the horses.

And what has been the condition of the back part of the property with respect to water?

So she has several patterns. They come down. The elevation is quite high actually on 80th Avenue. It's very, very high. And then it goes down. The Pete Galvin property is very high. It goes through her property. She has four different actually swales or waterways that traverse her property. They go into Charlevoix and they go through Charlevoix and they go right to Fort Creek.

And now I'd like to turn your attention to objectors exhibit number two, please. Yes. This is a copy of the USS solar site plan. Have you seen this document before? I have. And looking at the map legend, does it indicate the presence of a field delineated stream channel?

Yes, it does.

And according to the map legend, Does the blue area on the site plan indicate the presence of field delineated wetlands? Yes. And according to this exhibit, the site plan, is it correct that towards the middle of the plan, the blue A dotted horizontal area indicates the presence of a field delineated wetland.

Yes, the wetland actually goes all the way from the bottom towards where those ponds are the bottom. So the southern portion, it goes all the way up where you see there's a horizontal line.

And according to this site plan, how many solar panel rows are shown on the map as being placed through the farmed wetland? Four to five.

It's hard to tell actually from this. I don't know if they can make that a little close. They can do a close up on that, but there's four to five. It's going straight through the wetland. You can see it there. It's four panels that are, I think, yeah, there. And then there's maybe one or two panels that are, and it's going straight through the wetland.

All right. Next, I'd like to turn your attention to objectors exhibit number three, which is a copy of the aquatic delineation resource report. Have you seen this document before?

Yes, I have.