The Will County Board voted 16-5 vote Thursday to reject plans for a solar facility in New Lenox Township that was opposed by New Lenox village officials and nearby homeowners.
Soltage proposed two 5-megawatt commercial solar energy facilities on about 75 acres southeast of Haven Avenue and Gougar Road. The village of New Lenox abuts the property to the west and north and objected to the plan.
More than 80 residents of the nearby Fieldstone Subdivision signed a petition stating the commercial solar energy facility would negatively impact their property values. They also said the height of the vegetation and the minimal times it would be mowed would be an eyesore and create problems with mosquitoes and rodents.
“This proposed solar farm will be extraordinarily close to our homes,” Sandy Wheeler said. “I was involved in preparing the signatures in opposition to this proposed solar farm. Not one resident that I asked to sign the petition denied it.”
Ray Stanford said residents in the Fieldstone Subdivision believed it would depreciate their property values, saying he researched the impact of property values next to solar farms in states that have had such facilities long before they became popular in Illinois. He said he learned the value of homes about a half mile from the solar farms go down in value.
That claim was denied by Soltage representatives.
New Lenox is recommending a medium density, single-family residential development as part of its comprehensive plan for that land, said Robin Ellis, the assistant village administrator and community development director.
The village has been very deliberate in its planning and has intentionally kept industrial development west of Gougar Road, Ellis said.
The county could generate more in property taxes from a future residential development than a solar plant, Ellis said in a letter to the county, noting the developer estimated the solar facility would generate about $73,000 annually in property taxes whereas a modest residential development could generate $1.6 million annually.
The land owner last talked to the village about building a residential development in 2008, Ellis said. Since then, the village has taken steps to encourage residential development east of Gougar Road by investing nearly $4.5 million in road improvements. The village is also investing in a new wastewater treatment facility to prep the area for residential development, she said.
Board member Frankie Pretzel, the chair of the County Board’s Land Use and Development Committee, said this is the wrong location for a solar project.
“I drive by this property regularly,” Pretzel, a New Lenox Republican, said. “It’s just a matter of time that we see homes.”
He said the site is in a highly desired area in the heart of town.
New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann said homes are located to the west and north with Lincoln Way West High School to the south. If a solar facility is built, nearby vacant land would not be developed for homes, and an industrial use would likely be proposed.
“It doesn’t fit the area,” Baldermann said. “We are not anti-solar, it just doesn’t make sense on this piece of property.”
Baldermann said he believed the solar project would be a tremendous loss of revenue for the area taxing bodies.
Union School District 81 would receive $660,000 a year in property tax revenue if the land were developed as homes as the village wants, said Baldermann, who is also the district’s superintendent. As a solar facility, the district would receive $22,000 a year, he said.
The district is also highly sought after and would welcome more students, Baldermann said.
James Brown, fire marshal for the New Lenox Fire District, said he had concerns due to its proximity to schools and Silver Cross Hospital.
Stephanie Sienkowski, director of development at Soltage, said the project would bring about 60 to 75 union contractor jobs during construction, and the solar facility could provide solar energy to about 2,000 homes, helping meet a growing demand for electricity.
She said the company also planned to offer college scholarships to students and gift the New Lenox Fire District with an ATV. She tried to assuage concerns about fire hazards and said the company has an emergency response plan in place.
Andrew Lines, a real estate appraiser for Soltage, said data shows solar energy facilities don’t have issues on property values throughout the country including in coveted and scenic areas of Hawaii, California or Colorado.
Soltage attorney Maria Bries said the property is located in unincorporated Will County, which should supersede New Lenox’s planning authority. New Lenox’s comprehensive plan is only advisory, she said.
Commercial solar facilities are allowed to be located on agricultural land, and the Soltage project meets the requirements for a special use permit, she said. The company has invested $1.6 million in the project thus far, she said.
Bries said the Will County Board cannot be more restrictive than state law in denying an application.
“Decisions by counties based on local resistance rather than objective standards … are yielding arbitrary outcomes detrimental to ComEd’s future power supply and the state of Illinois’ pressing energy needs,” she said.
State laws governing solar projects have frustrated many county lawmakers, who feel the state is taking the control over local projects out of their hands.
“I strongly believe that the state legislature got this wrong and shame on them for putting us in this position month after month after month,” Pretzel said, adding he would like to put a halt on solar cases.
“The only reason they are called solar farms is because we are putting them on farm land,” said Republican Leader Jim Richmond, of Mokena. “Really, they are solar utility plants, and we are putting them in close proximity to houses not because this board wants them there but because Springfield has pushed this upon us.”
Democrat Sherry Newquist of Steger, who voted against the project, said she was on the fence. She said on one hand it was a textbook case of a municipality using its future planning area to decide how it wants to grow. But she conceded denying the project would ultimately lead to a lawsuit.
“And how well is that serving the taxpayers,” she said.
Wilmington solar
The County Board also voted 16-5 to reject a commercial solar energy facility proposed by Nexamp Solar LLC that would have been located on about 34 acres on Wilmington-Peotone Road in Wilmington.
County Board Speaker Joe VanDuyne, a Democrat from Wilmington, said the planned location is next to the community’s welcome sign and would be a bad location for a solar farm.
The city of Wilmington objected to the request because it was too close to existing residents and could be annexed to the city for a future residential use. City officials said the solar energy facility would be an eyesore and potentially create glare or contamination concerns, county documents said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
