SYCAMORE – The DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Committee has decided to bring its most recent edition of a draft solar ordinance to the County Board.
The committee met Monday in
the Legislative Center’s Gathertorium, 200 N. Main St., Sycamore,
to consider the county’s request
for changes to the text of the zoning ordinance, which would allow for
and establish regulations for solar energy systems, according to the agenda.
Hearing officer Dale Clark, county community development director Derek Hiland and assistant director Marcellus Anderson heard comments and answered questions for more than an hour about the ordinance’s initial draft during a hearing in January.
Residents and representatives of businesses located outside the county asked for clarifications and urged caution during the Jan. 31 hearing, but largely seemed in favor of the proposed ordinance.
“I want this to be done right for all of us,” said Ann Carlson, who lives west of Sycamore. “Otherwise, we’re losing what we are. We’re heartland.”
The first hearing was continued to Feb. 15, and a revised version of the draft ordinance was submitted for review. Hiland said after the previous hearing, staff “basically went page by page and thought about what needed to be changed” from the original ordinance, based on feedback from the hearing.
Feedback again was mostly positive.
Several of those who commented praised county staff members for increasing the setback distance for solar gardens and solar farms to be placed away from nearby properties, while others worried about how much glare solar devices might emit.
Clark, a Sycamore attorney,
compiled the comments and questions he received during the hearings and recommended approval of the draft presented before the Feb. 15 hearing with some additional suggestions.
Clark urged the county to consider a setback requirement less than
500 feet, clarify that the property line be referenced as the setback reference point and use the same term, “solar farm,” throughout Section 2 to avoid confusion.
The ordinance will next go before the County Board for approval, but it was not immediately clear Wednesday when the item would be on the agenda.
