Solar farms seem to be the focus of village board meetings these days.
Will County has no fewer than five renewable energy projects currently under consideration.
Crete village officials are looking at development of two solar fields, both of which sought Special Use Permits during the September 22 board of trustees meeting.
The permit for TurningPoint Energy was approved in a 5-1 vote, while one for the Falconhead Solar project awaits recommendation from the village planning and zoning board.
“Turning Point is a new solar farm,” Village President Mark Wiater explained.
“The property has been in the village for many years, with no activity on the property. The parcel is south of Richton Road and west of I-394 and west of the Bible League property.
“The parcel is 78 acres, with plans to use about 44 for solar. The remainder of the property will be available for commercial development. “The farm is projected to develop five megawatts of power.
“(The September 22) vote was to grant a special use permit to Turning Point to allow the development.
Per village code, a commercial solar farm is regulated via a SUP, so that’s what the vote was for.”
Trustee Stephen Johnson gave the lone dissenting vote.
The Falconhead project, on the other hand, is across town. Proposed by Ironwood Renewables, its name apparently comes from its location near Falconhead Boulevard in Austin, Texas.
“It’s south of Vincennes, south of Farm Street, and east of Sangamon,” Wiater said.
“The village board approved their SUP many months ago. Falconhead came to the board a month ago and asked to change their vegetation plan to allow sheep and goats for grazing (agrivoltaics) a few times per year. The board seemed ok with the change, but wanted to memorialize it with a variance to their original SUP.”
So the issue was headed to a planning and zoning meeting to address the grazing modification.
“Once the planning and zoning folks make their recommendations, it’ll come back to the village board for a final vote,” he added.
In other business during the September 22 meeting, the board:
- Set Village of Crete trick-or-treat hours from 3 to 7 p.m., on Friday, October 31. Adult supervision is required during the last hour between 6 and 7 p.m.
- Learned that a notice was received from the Will County Board of Review of property requesting a reduction in assessed value of equal to or more than $100,000 for the property commonly known as Adventure Trails. Staff have been directed to proceed with appropriate response.
- Noted that an email was received from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office on violence prevention and crime victims services, which is offering programs and events to aid the community
- Learned Trustees Seifert, Healy, and Miller attended the annual Illinois Municipal League continuing education conference. All three were complementary about the program and are “excited to bring this new knowledge to the residents of Crete”
- Learned President Wiater has been working with the new village accountant, Nate Pasbrig, and reported “things are proceeding smoothly.”