The Sedgwick County Commission voted Wednesday to enact stricter regulations on utility-scale solar projects.
The new rules limit the size of solar farms and prohibit large ones from being built in unincorporated parts of the county that surround cities, called urban growth areas.
The vote ends a nearly-year-long process to develop new regulations for large-scale solar arrays. Last September, the county put a temporary ban on all commercial solar projects while it began an exhaustive process to update its regulations.
Commissioner David Dennis said the completed rules will finally allow utility-scale solar farms to start getting permitted where still allowed.
“I think that very soon we'll see some applications for conditional use for large solar projects,” Dennis said. “There are two more locations that are perfect.”
The ban is set to expire Sept. 13.
Maize, a city in west Sedgwick County, is pleased with the county’s decision. Mayor Patrick Stivers was concerned that large solar farms right outside city limits could make it difficult for the fast-growing city to build housing and other developments in the future.
“I think it was good for us in that it's protecting us from large solar,” Stivers said. “We are for solar, but we were just concerned that economically, it would adversely affect the city of Maize.”
But solar companies, as well as environmental groups, worry the rules are too restrictive. Last week, one developer said some of the new regulations threaten a proposed large-scale solar project in west Sedgwick County. Chicago-based Invenergy wants to build a 103-megawatt solar farm between Maize and Colwich, on land included in the cities’ urban growth areas.
“The alternative solar regulations approved by the Sedgwick County Commissioners today included several provisions that impact the current plans for Chisholm Trail Energy Center,” wrote Erika Huffman, a spokesperson for Invenergy, in an email to KMUW. “We are evaluating these newly introduced regulations and will make decisions on any necessary project updates in the coming weeks.”
The rules commissioners ultimately voted in favor of were the result of a long process to establish new rules.
The Wichita-Sedgwick County Metropolitan Area Planning Commission proposed a set of rules last March, after a months-long deliberation process. Invenergy supported the MAPC’s regulations, but commissioners felt there were still unresolved concerns.
In April, the county hired a Virginia-based consultant called the Berkley Group to study and make recommendations on potential rules.
Following the Berkley Group’s report, city-county planning staff updated and expanded the proposed regulations, which grew from five pages to 12.
Commissioners adopted the majority of the rules Wednesday, though Dennis loosened several of the regulations. That included expanding the maximum size of a solar farm from 1,280 acres to 1,500 acres and allowing solar farms to span more contiguous pieces of land in a row.
Dennis said he made the changes after learning that 200 megawatt solar farms require more space.
Zack Pistora is a lobbyist with the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group. He said the organization supported Dennis’ amendments, but it remains to be seen whether the regulations passed Wednesday will make it impossible to develop solar farms in Sedgwick county.
“We're still skeptical, but nevertheless hopeful that Sedgwick County will welcome solar going forward,” Pistora said. “Of course, there's always room for improvement and making changes as we figure things out. And I’d guess Sedgwick (County) might warm up to solar when other counties capture the project and benefits that are missed out with overly-restrictive regulations.”
The new set of rules prevents county commissioners from waiving some of the specific regulations, such as the prohibition of solar farms in urban growth areas. Several commissioners – Sarah Lopez, Ryan Baty and Pete Meitzner – asked to allow waivers on a project-by-project basis, but the motion failed.
Dennis said instead of waiving the regulations for certain projects, the urban growth areas can be changed if need be.
“We set the urban growth area, not the cities,” Dennis said. “We set it. So if we decide there’s something that shouldn’t be in an urban area, we change it. It’s simple as that. We’ve done it before.”
