Ogle County Board: Special use permit for solar project approved following lawsuit

Special use permit for wedding venue approved

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OREGON — At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Ogle County Board approved a special use permit for a solar project in the area of Haldane by a 13-11 vote. Haldane is located between Forreston and Polo. 

Back in April, the Ogle County Board unanimously denied a special use permit for the project requested by Cenergy Power for a five-megawatt community solar project in Lincoln Township on agricultural-zoned land due to the land’s high Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) score for agricultural use. LESA is a land evaluation method for cropland and integrates soil survey interpretations for important farmland classes, land capability classification, and either soil productivity or soil potential ratings. In March, the board unanimously endorsed a resolution to support high-quality farmland.

After the denial, the petitioner, Cenergy Power,  made some changes to the siting of the project after the county’s denial and submitted again. The new site has lesser LESA scores and a slightly lesser size. The petitioner also filed a lawsuit against Ogle County for the denial, stemming from a recent new state law that set statewide standards for wind and solar farm siting and took away previous local controls such as at the county level. 

"All this land on this property is highly productive," Board Member Ben Youman said. "Even though they minimized the impact of the land that was used, it's still very high-quality farmland. We agreed to look at it again and they agreed to place the lawsuit in abeyance.” 

The county hired a law firm for the issue, and it was estimated fighting the lawsuit could cost the county $300,000-500,000. Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said the lawsuit would have been “incredibly expensive and time consuming.”

“As far as policy, does Ogle County want to be the tip of the spear fighting the governor's zoning power grab?” Rock said. “The state took everything away. Do we want to be the county to fight it? This would be framing this zoning issue for the whole state if this is the fight you want to take.”

Voting against the approval of the Haldane solar project Tuesday were Board Members Dean Fox, Austin Gillis, Marcia Heuer, Lyle Hopkins, Skip Kenney, Dan Miller, Jackie Ramsey, Ryan Reeverts, Joseph Simms, Susie Corbitt and Brian Daws.

“I have a hard time conceding to them and losing good land,” Hopkins said. “When the county board voted to support agriculture and preserve it. There's other places and rougher ground where these things can be placed. Why take good farm ground and put these things on it?”

Following the approval, the board heard from a Haldane resident, Mike Bowman, who was against the solar field. 

“My north view is going to be this solar farm for the next 25 years, which by all aspects is the rest of my life,” Bowman said. “I can't put up a visual barrier. My view right now is a beautiful cornfield with the Haldane Cemetery on the north edge of it. I'll no longer be able to see the cemetery where I have a whole lot of friends and family buried.”

Venue

The board approved a supplemental special use permit to allow a wedding venue at 16989 E. Ritchie Road south of Rochelle. The approval passed 18-6. Voting against the special use permit were Board Members Austin Gillis, Marcia Heuer, Dan Miller, Zach Oltmanns, Jackie Ramsey and Jeff Billeter.

The county’s planning and zoning committees previously voted 6-0 to move the special use permit to the county board level due to similar venues being allowed, along with the owners’ assurance that the events will be run properly and have no effect on neighbors due to the industrial area it’s in. 

The property at 16989 E. Ritchie Road is where rodeos have been held in the past that have drawn outcry from animal rights groups alleging mistreatment of animals, along with previous police and EMS response for issues such as fights and reports of shots fired. Board Member Dan Janes said Tuesday that the property has come under new management since those incidents, and that the wedding venue would be "in addition to" the rodeos.

"This is under new management from previous issues," Janes said. " I don't know how to explain it because it hasn't happened yet."

Bearrows

Rochelle Mayor John Bearrows made a presentation to the board during the meeting and discussed a home incentive program that his city has put into place to encourage the building of single-family homes.

The program will be a five-year 100-percent city portion-only property tax rebate for newly-built single-family homes and newly-built residential townhomes. The program will be capped at 15 homes per year. Property must be owner-occupied and not used as a rental property.

The program will involve rebate and reimbursement and applicants are required to pay their full tax bill each year. Owners will be required to bring proof of tax payment by Oct. 1 to the city manager’s office. All rebates will be issued no later than Nov. 15 of each year.

The program will begin Jan. 1, 2025, and run for the next five years until possible renewal for more years.

Bearrows said Tuesday he’s hopeful the county will implement the program, along with other municipalities. 

"We'd like to see some stability and some neighborhoods where people build houses and stay long term," Bearrows said. That's the goal of our city and I'm sure that's the goal of the county. Sustainability is extremely important."

Campoll

During the meeting, the board heard a presentation by Christy Campoll, who is conducting a study for the Reagan Mass Transit District on a potential deviating fixed bus route in Rochelle. 

A study was recently conducted on the route and its findings resulted in a deviating fixed route system being recommended with priority areas of shopping, medical care and social/government services. The route would make designated stops around the city but would deviate to pick up riders a certain distance from the route at their request. 

The potential route would start downtown, proceed to South Main Street past Rochelle Foods, then to the dense residential area of Willis Avenue, back to Illinois Route 251 and then north to 9th Street to The REC Center and then to ALDI and the residential area behind it and May Mart, and then to Walmart and Caron Road before going to the hospital and back downtown.

Campoll said RMTD is considering different run times for the route, including Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($224,400 yearly cost, 12,240 projected riders), 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. ($336,600 yearly cost, 18,360 projected riders) or 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. ($392,700 yearly cost, 21,420 projected riders). Potential expansion to limited weekend hours is being looked at as well.

Campoll said the project would also need to find a project manager and make capital expenditures such as a new bus and working with the city to construct bus stops. The route is tentatively planned to launch in fall 2025.

Larson

Tuesday’s meeting was the first as board chairman for Bruce Larson, who was elected as chairman recently following the departure of former Board Chairman John Finfrock.