BY NORA MABERRY
On Tuesday the St. Joseph Village Board will vote to approve a resolution they asked the Village Attorney Joe Lierman to draft.
The resolution will state that the board does not support the requested variances that Community Power Group LCC has requested from the Champaign County Board.
In August the Champaign County Board voted to amend zoning rules to allow for solar farms.
The company is asking the board to give them a variance allowing the solar farm north of St. Joseph to be placed within 725 feet of the village limits instead of the half-mile that is in their original ordinance.
The 2-megawatt farm that is proposed north of St. Joseph would be built on 13.56 acres of a 57.84 acre tract and would be located north of the St. Sportsmans Club and would be bordered by county roads 2350 E and 1700 N.
This land is viewed as potential residential development, according to the village’s comprehensive plan.
Two other solar farms are being planned for land near St. Joseph.
One would be located west of County Road 2200 E and north of County Road 1700 N.
This farm would be a 2-megawatt community farm and would be built on 14.37 acres.
The other solar farm would be a 4-megawatt community farm and would be built on 31.8 acres of land north of Interstate 74 and west of County Road 2350 E.
During the previous village board meeting, trustees expressed concern that the farm near the Sportsmans Club would be placed so close to the village limits and on land that they view as possibly being residential developments in the future.
Lierman told the board that one plus of adding the solar farms would be the additional tax revenue they would bring into the school districts and the county.
“The schools will get most of it,” Lierman said.
Trustee Bob Rigdon also expressed concern about the farm’s location so close to the Sportsman’s Club.
The trustees also expressed concern that the power created at the farm wouldn’t be sold to local residents, however Mike Borkowski , an owner of Maryland-based Community Power Group, told Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges at a recent Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals meeting that local residents would have the option to subscribe to the power created at the farm. The company would sell credits for the electricity it would produce at a discount to customers. Borkowski told Fruhling-Voges that 400 homes in St. Joseph would be able to subscribe to the power produced at the farm.
