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Solar regs on city council agenda
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Solar regulations within the 3-mile zoning jurisdiction of Great Bend are on the agenda for the next City Council meeting. It starts at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, at City Hall. The meeting will be livestreamed for the public to view on the city council Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gbcitycouncil/.

The council will consider an ordinance on solar regulations. However, the administration recommends sending the ordinance back to the planning commission with new suggested language, after a work session on Oct. 7.

Other items on the agenda are an ordinance allowing a lot-tie agreement where a property owner merges smaller lots into a larger lot for zoning purposes; a public hearing for the creation of the Great Bend STAR Bond District; and an executive session to discuss information deemed privileged in the attorney-client relation.


Solar regulations

On September 30, the Great Bend Planning Commission held a public hearing to consider proposed solar regulations, then made its recommendations. These were discussed at the Oct. 7 work session where questions were raised on the following: the language for general liability insurance of not less than $2 million and a groundwater test conducted within the area of the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) site before placement, every 5 years and after an extraordinary event. Another suggestion was to change the language of “developer” to “owner/operator.”

The council has three options at this point: approve the planning commission’s recommendation and pass the ordinance with no changes; override and reject the planning commission’s recommendation (this option would require a 2/3rds majority of the membership, which is six votes), or neither approve nor disapprove this ordinance but send it back to the planning commission for reconsideration.

Items it would like the planning commission to reconsider are:

• Change the language for general liability insurance to be per occurrence in the amount of not less than $2 million or as determined by the size of the project and approved by the planning commission/city council.

• Regarding the language concerning the groundwater test, city staff (after discussion with the city council) recommend it to read: “A Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment or equivalent be conducted.”