Sterling city officials lost their battle against a 23-acre solar farm on the western edge of town on Tuesday, but they went down fighting.
Ultimately, it came down to the solar farm meeting all of Logan County’s requirements and the landowner having the right to use his property in any legal manner he deemed appropriate.
City officials had raised concerns about the installation, claiming they were not properly informed about it in advance and thus were not involved in the decision-making process. Commissioners had delayed approval so that county and Pivot representatives could present information to the Sterling City Council.
Councilman Dean Haynes raised these issues again on Tuesday during the informal public hearing on the permit. Haynes also read a letter from Councilwoman Megan Wolf, who was unable to attend the meeting. In her letter, Wolf described the idyllic view from her backyard of the property, where hay is cut and baled and wildlife can be seen. Several other city residents from that neighborhood raised the issue of “industrial” use of agricultural land, citing Logan County’s Right to Farm policy.
However, landowner Bob Lingreen refuted the notion that the land could be used for farming, saying he could no longer bring farm equipment onto the property because of restricted access. He said people had been dumping all kinds of waste onto the property, from cat litter to old mattresses, which he had to clean up.
“I can’t build on it because it’s in the flood plain, I can’t get equipment there to keep the weeds under control and I need some kind of return,” he said.
Pivot Energy’s information on its website states that it plans to plant crops on the property and graze sheep on it.
Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg admonished some of the speakers who had tried to shift the blame to County Planner Rob Quint’s office for not knowing about the project in advance.
“We have a process, and it took more than a year to develop that process, and the Planning and Zoning Board followed that process and did exactly what they were supposed to do,” Sonnenberg said. “To blame (Quint’s office) for any of that is completely inappropriate.”
At the end of the discussion, the commissioners were presented with the letter and spirit of the Logan County solar farm regulations, which they felt were consistent with the Pivot Project and the property rights of landowners.
“We must respect the rights of the landowner who wants to lease the site for this purpose,” said board chairman Mike Brownell.
Originally published:
