Will County committees will meet twice this month to continue discussing Earthrise Energy’s proposed Pride of the Prairie solar farm before the County Board votes May 21 on the project that would span about 6,100 acres in Manhattan, Green Garden and Wilton townships.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will continue its public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Renaissance Center, 214 N. Ottawa St., Joliet, as part of a court order after residents filed a lawsuit saying they weren’t allowed to cross examine Earthrise Energy last month. A judge agreed, which postponed an official decision on the sprawling solar plant.
Jeff Becker, a Green Garden Township resident, said the time between a cross examination Tuesday, an Executive Committee meeting on May 14 and the Will County Board’s planned vote a week later is too quick for board members to digest the voluminous amount of information for such a large project.
Becker is a representative of the Watershed Committee, and is working on behalf of more than a dozen residents who sued the county.
The project’s application is incomplete and doesn’t address how it affects the watershed and wetlands, and how many solar panels would be included, Becker told a gathering of the New Lenox Township Republican organization Wednesday. Becker assured the group they are continuing to fight the solar farm.
If the project is approved, residents plan to sue Will County, Becker said.
But he said he hopes some of the board’s Democrats side with Republicans to vote the project down, which would likely then result in a lawsuit from Earthrise.
The New Lenox Township Republican Committee hosted the presentation to update residents on the status of solar projects and urge residents to pay attention to Will County and state government in advance of November’s election.
Debbie Andrews, the organization’s chair, said residents are concerned valuable farmland is going to be lost to these solar projects, and the land won’t be usable again once the leases end decades later.
Will County Board member Frankie Pretzel, a New Lenox Republican and chair of the board’s Land Use Committee, said the County Board is a “poster child” for how the process of evaluating solar facilities should be.
“There’s a few members on the board that are a yes (vote), no matter what, a few that are a no, no matter what,” he said. “But the truth is most of the time these projects get over the finish line with a majority, and that’s how it should be.”
Pretzel said the board has approved more than 60 solar projects while denying a handful because they weren’t the right fit. Municipal officials and residents objected to their locations and said they were too close to homes, and the majority of the board agreed when denying those projects, he said.
Those solar companies sued the county for approval, and a judge last month sided in their favor, citing state law that doesn’t allow local ordinances to be more stringent than the state code when it comes to wind and solar projects.
“We are passing (solar projects) 10 to 1,” Pretzel said. “This is how it should work. It shouldn’t be a rubber stamp no matter what. It’s very frustrating to me the way we are currently doing it still isn’t enough.”
Board members were threatened with contempt of court if they didn’t approve special-use permits for the solar companies and many reluctantly voted yes last month for six solar projects near New Lenox, Wilmington, Shorewood and Channahon.
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County Board member Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican and farmer, said solar developers are actively pursuing farm owners for their land. She said she recently received a mailer from a developer offering $3,800 per acre to lease or $40,000 an acre to buy a portion of her property.
It was unusual that the developer posted an offer for the land since most of the time that is not disclosed, she said. Farmland might otherwise sell for $13,000 to $16,000 an acre or lease for $200 to $300 an acre, showcasing how the solar developers are wooing farmers and making it hard to refuse offers, she said.
Some landowners for the Earthrise projects are selling for between $40,000 and $65,000 an acre, Ogalla said.
“I do believe that you should be able to sell your land,” Ogalla said. “What I don’t believe is that we should have to have an industrial-type use on agricultural land.”
Ogalla said the state law as written needs to change and believes residents need to file a lawsuit against Illinois.
“How can you take away powers from a county board and other local jurisdictions?” Ogalla said.
Becker urged residents to come out to oppose the project so the whole region doesn’t become industrialized. The Earthrise project is in prime farmland, and Illinois is one of the worst states for capturing solar energy, he said.
“You are using up massive farmland; you’re getting a small amount of energy,” Becker said.
Wilton and Green Garden townships oppose the special-use permit for Pride of the Prairie, according to county documents.
Earthrise touts that the Pride of the Prairie project combined with the 2,400-acre Plum Valley Solar project near Crete will generate enough electricity to power about 110,000 homes.
Pride of the Prairie is expected to last between 35 and 50 years and will generate an estimated $3.5 million in new taxes to local taxing bodies in the first year of operations, the company said.
The project is expected to be built by local unions, and union representatives came out in large numbers last month to support the Plum Valley Solar project, which was approved in April mostly on party lines.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Renaissance Center, 214 N. Ottawa St., Joliet.
Will County’s Executive Committee will take place at 10 a.m. May 14 and the full board meets 9:30 a.m. May 21 at the Will County Office Building, 302 N. Chicago St., Joliet.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.