Freeport City Council delays solar energy vote – News – Journal Standard

Final decision may come in September

FREEPORT — The City Council on Monday deferred a decision to make it easier for residents and developers to add solar energy installations to their properties. 

A proposed ordinance would set standards for receiving a solar installation permit, based upon the size of the installation. The smaller the installation, the less requirements there would be.

Aldermen first discussed the proposed changes at a July 9 Committee of the Whole meeting and continued the conversation through the August Committee of the Whole meeting. The council was expected to vote Monday, but City Manager Lowell Crow and legal Counsel Steven Cox suggested that aldermen should wait until September, to ensure they’ve had time to review all the changes that have been made over the past month.

“The ordinance itself is lengthy and involved and it’s a major addition to our existing zoning,” Cox said. “I think both (Crow) and I want to make sure that the City Council has enough time to evaluate any of the changes that we’ve made to the ordinance as we’ve gone along, including some just since the Committee of the Whole last week.”

Potential changes come as a result of the city’s quest to become a SolSmart-designated community. SolSmart is led by the International City/County Management Association and The Solar Foundation and provides no-cost technical assistance to help local governments evaluate solar programs and practices.

“If we don’t adopt some type of ability for local residents to mount ground-mounted solar, our chances of getting a SolSmart designation, which opens up grants and various things to locals and businesses, decreases significantly,” Crow said.

Crow added that Stephenson County has become an attractive area for developers, as the county is on the western border of the eastern power grid.

“There are two different grids in which you can buy energy credits: the eastern grid and the western grid,” Crow said. “Right now credits are more valuable on the east coast because there’s less ability to do solar.

“California, Oregon and Washington have been at the leading edge of solar and renewable energy so there isn’t the big demand for solar credits.”

There is currently no standard for solar installation in the city’s zoning codes, making it difficult for residents to know what they could do and for community development employees to determine what should be permitted. The ordinance changes clearly lay out what is acceptable and how to apply for a permit.

Permit requirements would range from applying for a simple building permit for small-scale systems, to holding a public meeting and having a special report from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for large-scale projects.

Sizes for the solar installations will be broken up into three tiers: small, mid and large scale. A small-scale energy system would take up less than 4,000 square feet of land or rooftop space, while mid would cover up to one acre. Anything more than one acre would be considered a large-scale system.

 Derrick Mason: 815-232-0133; derrick.mason@journalstandard.com; @derrickhmason