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August Zoning and Economic
Development Committee Meeting
[August 05, 2025]
On Monday, August 4th, the Zoning
and Economic Development Committee of the larger Logan County board
met for their monthly meeting. This meeting was held in the Blue
Room of the Logan County Courthouse starting at 6:41 p.m. The
meeting was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., but the Transportation
Committee meeting that preceded it went a little over. Three of the
five committee members were in attendance. Those present were
Chairman Michael DeRoss, Vice Chairman Kathy Schmidt, and Joseph
Kuhlman. Absent were Hannah Fitzpatrick and Bob Sanders. Also in
attendance were board members Kevin Knauer and Lance Conahan, as
well as Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al Green.
DeRoss kicked off the meeting with old business, but there were no
updates. The first two items were the quarry project and “recent
legislation.” The third item was labelled “application for CSEF
siting approval permit.” The committee members could not remember
what that item was or what CSEF stood for. DeRoss then moved them on
to new business.
For new business, there were two items on the agenda, but DeRoss
added one between them about the Viper Mine closure grant. The first
item was to approve a permit application. The board voted
unanimously to move this to next Thursday’s Workshop meeting without
discussing specifics.
The second item that was not on the agenda was the Viper Mine
closure grant. DeRoss informed everyone present that he had been in
contact with someone from the Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity (DECO) and had been informed that Logan County’s
application had been denied. The reason the DECO representative
stated was that the application was incomplete. DeRoss asked for
what parts were incomplete and was told that the section where the
mine that was closed had to be listed, as well as the county’s tax
data were left blank. DeRoss pulled back up the application and saw
that these items were not, in fact, left blank. He reached out to
the DECO representative again but had not yet heard back by the
start of the meeting.
DeRoss said that there is a formal appeal process for anyone who is
denied, but he is going to give them two days to correct their error
before he does that. He stated that he also FOIAed (Freedom of
Information Act) DECO for all the information they had regarding
Logan County’s application. DeRoss also shared that he contacted a
lawyer that reached out to the county for thirteen letters of
approval regarding the grant. He shared that five of the thirteen
organizations/groups that he represented were also denied. Green
added “this is run by the guy who showed up to the Planning
Commission meeting with absolutely nothing prepared.”
The last item for new business was
the consideration of amending the zoning code to change permit fees
relating to solar and wind project construction. As it stands, the
county charges a fee for the power output of solar projects. This
fee is $2,000 per megawatt. This amount must be paid before the
permits to begin the project will be assigned. As for wind towers,
however, the current permit fee is by height, stating that it costs
$20 per foot. Green stated that companies are working on newer
technologies, and that wind towers are shrinking all the time. This
being the case, the county is losing out on permit money that they
could be getting if they were to charge differently.
Two ideas for changing the permit fees were presented. The first was
to mirror what the county does with solar, and charge by the energy
output. Green stated that, to do this and keep even with what they
are making now, they would need to charge $4,000 per megawatt.
Alternatively, it was stated that they could charge by the tower as
well as by the energy output. Green shared that there is another
potential wind project coming to the county, but they should have
time to amend the permits before they would need it updated. DeRoss
asked Green when he could have a draft of the change, and Green
stated that he would likely be able to have it done by October.
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The next item on
the agenda was Green’s Zoning and Economic Development Officer’s
Report. He started off by listing the permits that his office
had given out in the last month. These included a new home,
several solar roof mounts, a ground solar roof mount, and a cell
tower upgrade. He also addressed allegations that a company
called Donato Solar was starting a solar project without their
permits. This matter was looked into, and it turns out the
people that reported this confused another solar project for the
one Donato is going to be making when and if they get their
permits.
Green also shared that he received Donato’s permit applications.
He addressed a concern with them regarding their decommissioning
price. They claimed that they were expecting to get $250,000
more from salvage than they would have to pay to decommission,
and this would be able to cover the cost of the decommission
from the salvage alone. The board has had their doubts about
this in the past, as solar projects are forty year projects. In
previous meetings, members such as Dale Nelson voiced doubt that
companies could accurately guess how much they would get for
salvage forty years in the future. Green addressed this with
Donato and got them to agree to change it.
Green also mentioned that, in their
permit application, there is nothing mentioned about battery
storage. However, their environmental assessment report does mention
battery storage. Green is under the impression that they are going
to add this to their project, and that there will be nothing the
county can do to stop them because of state laws regarding battery
storage. The location of this proposed project would be “across the
street from EATON.”
DeRoss and Green also mentioned changing the zoning ordinance to add
fines for breaking ordinances. Green said that he would like to
model it off of what Bret Aukamp has over at the Highway Department
but was looking to speak to State’s Attorney Brad Hauge first. Green
shared that Sugar Creek was the only energy company that sent him
their annual report. This is required by the zoning ordinance and
was due by June 1st. Green stated that he is going to send out one
more reminder to do this but currently has no way to enforce getting
these. Schmidt asked about what can be done, and Green stated that
their only option would be the “nuclear option,” which would be
pulling their permits. This, Green shared, could get the county
sued, however. DeRoss stated that he believes Green should write a
draft and start the process. Hauge would come in and alert the
county if their actions were breaking state law before it was passed
and the ordinance changed.
Green also shared that there was another large-scale solar project
that might be coming up. He asked the company for specifics, but
they had none to give at the time. A bit of further discussion was
had about fighting these kinds of projects. After the discussions
came to an end, a motion was made to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher]
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