Pottawatomie County commissioners gave consensus Monday to extend its ongoing moratorium on solar farms until January 1, 2023.
Doing so doesn’t mean the board and the county planning commission can’t still meet to draft zoning regulations. Commissioner Greg Riat says without it, a resident could in theory start building a solar farm operation on their property.
“Just say we’re not going to do any solar farms in our county until January 1 of 2023 and for some reason we get our planning and zoning done in August we take it off.”
The current moratorium is set to expire in March. The process of drafting regulations has been a complicated one that continues to try to hash out concerns over property rights, environmental concerns and other circumstances that may arise. Commission Chair Pat Weixelman…
“This thing’s got to be done right and you know it takes an extra month or two so be it… We feel pretty good about it. In three or four months from now get all the meetings in and get the feedback from the public get all of it back and kind of weigh it. I think the sooner we get it figured out the better off we’re going to be.”
County Counselor John Watt will bring back a resolution next week for the commission to sign.
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