Date: TEST MEETING 4/2/2020 - ORIGINAL MEETING 3/17/2020
To: Mayor and City Council Members
City Administrator
From: Mikayla Schmidt, City Planner
David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Mitzi Baker, Community Development Director
Title
TEST MEETING - Consider a Conditional Use Permit request for up to a 1MW Solar Garden.
Body
Action Requested:
The City Council consider approving the attached Resolution of a Conditional Use Permit for up to a 1MW Solar Garden.
Summary Report:
Hyacinth Solar, LLC is proposing up to a 1MW solar garden project located west of the Northfield Hospital and Benedictine Living Community in Dakota County. The parcel is owned by St. Olaf College, located within corporate limits, and the property is zoned A-S: Agricultural. The project is adjacent to, and south of, the existing solar garden lying north of North Avenue/330th St. and west of the intersection with Eaves Avenue.
Geronimo Energy, a renewable energy developer based in Edina, Minnesota, is developing the proposed Hyacinth project. Geronimo Energy will use inverters and a linear axis tracking system. The estimated start date for construction is spring of this year. The original project site was proposed to be linear to the existing 5MW site. The future Transportation Plan, from the Comprehensive Plan, shows Eaves Ave. will extend to the north through where the original project was proposed. As a result, staff recommended reconfiguring the solar field to avoid conflict with the future right of way and the applicant revised their proposal to comply. Hyacinth Solar will be updating their maps as part of the attached full narrative. A decommissioning agreement will come forward at a March 2020 city council meeting for review.
The Planning Commission met and held a public hearing on Thursday, January 16, 2020. Public comment was heard from two adjacent property owners (and a third who called in) with concerns on runoff from the existing 5MW solar garde...
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