The Grant County Commissioners voted unanimously for a moratorium on solar at the Monday morning meeting.
Community members who have concerns about commercial solar have been attending public meetings for months to voice their concerns with the current solar ordinance in Grant County. Some of those concerned about solar have been calling for a moratorium for a while, a request that, up until this week, the commissioners have not fulfilled.
After the items on the meeting agenda and before the public comment, Commissioner President Ron Stewart called for a six-month moratorium on solar, which he said would add “an extended period for residents to share their perspectives. This decision aims to foster a comprehensive dialogue and ensure that the community’s concerns and opinions are thoroughly considered. I feel community feedback and collaboration is important and in the best interest of Grant County.”
Stewart said he wants to take the six months to do more research, including into the ordinances in Madison and Delaware counties.
Commissioner Steve Wright said he had already been thinking that a moratorium would be a good idea and said he has several questions he wants to look into during the moratorium, such as who is responsible for the land without solar panels due to the setbacks and if the state offers financial incentives for adhering to their setback rules.
Commissioner Mark Bardsley said he has looked into other counties that have placed caps on how much land can be used by commercial solar and that he was open to a moratorium to gather more information.
Stewart entertained a motion “for a six-month moratorium on the solar projects here in Grant County,” a motion which Wright made. After a pause, Bardsley seconded the motion. All three commissioners voted in favor of the moratorium, a decision which the audience gathered in the room applauded.
The Chronicle-Tribune spoke with all three commissioners after the meeting to ask them about their decisions to vote for the moratorium.
“Basically, nothing could happen regarding solar for six months,” Stewart explained. “So the solar companies cannot come in and put panels into the ground. It just basically is a six-month time-out for all that. For anything solar, really.”
Wright said he thinks the commissioners need to clarify the moratorium more.
“We just said solar. We didn’t say industrial solar. So I had a question … ‘What what does this actually mean? Does this mean residential solar as well?’” Wright said. “We didn’t address that. We’re going to have to clarify that probably in our next meeting. Because right now, we just said the word solar. So, if we put a moratorium on solar, what does that do to the residential side?”
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it (a moratorium) since I was asked to be president,” Stewart said. “...I just felt like it was kind of a good time to ask for that (the moratorium). Just kind of getting some of the feel from the other commissioners, my other two colleagues that I talked to about it. I just felt like maybe that they were, especially Commissioner Wright, might be in favor of the moratorium just to add a little bit of time for them to do some more investigating into the ramifications and how this is all gonna play out.”
Bardsley said part of what swayed him to vote for the moratorium was the fact that Stewart limited it to six months and specified what he wanted the commissioners to use the six months for.
“Moratoriums are notoriously ways to just shelve something for long periods of time, and after President Stewart said he wants time, but specified time so that we can review what the state currently suggests and look at the other ordinances for some of the counties close to us and we’ve had some others recommend a couple other ordinances to take a look at,” Bardsley said. “... But that way, we can review both sides of the situation and find out where that good common ground is.”
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