St. Joseph Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges has a plan for the future of St. Joseph.
That plan does not include two solar farms scheduled to be built north of town.
Fuhling-Voges is trying to rally residents to let the Champaign County Board how they feel about two additional solar farms being proposed near the village boundaries. Fruhling-Voges said residents that have an opinion on the subject should attend the County Board Zoning meeting this Thursday at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place in the John Dimit Room of the Brookens Center in Urbana.
“We have a good chance of stopping these two solar farms if we can have a good turn out to protest the development,” Fruhling-Voges said.
The 2-megawatt farm that will be built on 13.56 acres of a 57.84-acre tract north of the St. Joseph Sportsman Club was already granted the waivers they asked for allowing them to build within 725 feet of the village.
“The one north of the sportsman club was approved last Thursday and I don’t want two more blocking any future development to the north of the village or making the property around those projects less desirable to projects in the future,” Fruhling-Voges said.
The other proposed solar farms would be a 4-megawatt solar farm on 31.8 acres of a 153-acre tract north of Interstate 74 and west of County Road 2350 E. and a 2-megawatt farm on 14.37 acres of a 212-acre tract west of County Road 2200 E (also known as Flatville Road) and north of County Road 1700 N. Those farms are asking for waivers that would let them build within 135 feet and 338 feet of the village limits.
Fruhling-Voges said her main concern is that the village would be limited in growing north if the solar farms are permitted to build so close to the village limits. “Whether St. Joseph grows to the north in two years or 20 years, this could be another stumbling block to make that happen,” she said.
The village board has already signed resolutions opposing the County Board granting the farms any waivers.
“One of our biggest objections is that all three solar farms are a half mile or less from the village limit,” Fruhling-Voges said.
The village is normally allowed to determine the future growth of the village within one and a half miles of village limits.
“The county has taken that away from us with allowing solar farms within a half a mile of all county villages,” Fruhling-Voges said. “There is, of course, many other concerns to be considered including the noise, decommissioning, damage to drainage tiles and the effect to property values to surrounding properties.”
Fruhling-Voges said she finds it interesting that the county has always worked to protect the county’s best, prime farmland and have always let the villages determine how that property was used within the one-and-a-half mile radius while also encouraged compact growth versus sprawling urban growth.
“But now those things don’t seem to be a factor,” she said.
