Exactly how to screen the 6-megawatt, 70-acre Aurora Solar site has been a matter of contention between the city of Annandale and project developers, but council members approved a final landscaping plan at a special meeting on Monday, Feb. 22.
The plan calls for screening with a single, staggered row of Black Hills spruce trees on the west, north and east sides of the property, which is bordered by Klever Avenue to the east and 70th Street NW to the north. The trees will be 12 to 14 feet tall when planted and should grow to a height of 30 to 40 feet over the next 15 to 20 years.
City Administrator Kelly Hinnenkamp told councilors that negotiation over the screening plan has gone back and forth, with the city originally asking for two rows of different species to guard against disease killing off portions of the screen. With just one row, however, she said the best screening tree is a Black Hills spruce because of its density.
Under the project permit from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, project owner Enel Green Power-North America is required to maintain the screen, so if any trees die they must be replaced. Approval of the plan by March 1 was called for in the settlement agreement the city recently reached with Aurora Distributed Solar.
Aurora is the legal entity behind the project, and the settlement agreement halted the city’s legal opposition by partially mitigating concerns about future development and negative aesthetics. Had the council not taken action last week, the screen would have reverted to a plan presented to the council in January, in which trees would have only been six feet tall when initially planted.
Councilor David Burd motioned to accept the final plan with the stipulation that the trees be planted either before or within a week of the solar panel installation, and that the trees be maintained throughout the use of the array.
"I don’t trust them at all. I want this as clear as possible," he said, referring to previous changes of the project plan without adequate communication of those changes to local government officials.
Councilor Corey Czycalla agreed.
"The story has seemed to change throughout this whole process, so we just want to have them nailed down, ‘This is what you’re going to do,’" he said.
Enel representatives told the council in January that construction of the Annandale site is scheduled to begin in April. The $250-million statewide project will include arrays at more than 20 sites around the state, including other locations near Montrose and Buffalo.
Another solar proposal
The bulk of discussion during last week’s meeting focused not on the screening plan for the Aurora site, but on a new solar development proposal from the company GreenMark to create a 40-acre array on land owned by Trace Development within city limits between the business park and the Annandale Recreation Park.
The company has contacted and met with individual council members outside of regular meetings to garner support. But while councilors said last week that they were willing to listen to proposals, most were skeptical, if not completely opposed, to having a solar facility at that location.
Mayor Dwight "Dewey" Gunnarson said the area was a prime candidate for residential development, particularly with the soon-to-be-constructed recreation park next door.
"If anything screams residential, it’s that piece, and I think that is something that we need to protect," he said.
Czycalla agreed that the parcel ought to be preserved for future housing.
"To me, that’s residential," he said. "It would be the best fit for that. There are going to be people that want to live next to that park. To me, it’s sort of similar to a golf course. There are specific people that will migrate to that area because of the park."
Proposed benefits
Burd, who had recently met with GreenMark representatives along with Czycalla, outlined what the company had pitched as benefits for Annandale. Those included powering local customers at 10 percent cost savings, contributing toward the city becoming the first in the state to become fully solar powered, and creating a buffer between the industrial park and residential areas using the solar array and existing trees.
"We’ve heard some people in town say they want to put solar on their house. Well, the comeback is they don’t have to. They can just get it from (this site) without installing it or paying it up front," said Burd. "We’ve heard people say they want solar. We know there is a percentage of folks out there this might interest. I thought it deserved discussion."
Burd clarified that he was 80 percent leaning toward preserving the land for residential development, but 20 percent wondered if a properly screened solar facility could be a decent buffer between industrial and residental land.
Councilor Shelly Jonas had been approached by one of the owners of the site, who made that very argument, and Hinnenkamp said she understood that the property was under a purchase agreement, meaning GreenMark would buy it if the project received approval.
Benefits questioned
Hinnenkamp said that while it sounded good to receive 10 percent energy savings, that savings is already available to Xcel Energy customers who live within a certain distance of community solar projects and wish to invest in them.
She also clarified that community solar projects are fundamentally different from the Aurora project, which will operate under a state permit.
As for staking Annandale’s claim as the first solar-powered city in the state, council members agreed that title would be more of a marketing benefit for the company than something the city ought to concern itself with.
"I would much rather have Annandale be known as a great place to live, work and play, and move to, rather than being a green energy icon," said Gunnarson. "And frankly, that’s what we’re needing now. We’ve worked really hard recently to make Annandale a very wonderful place to work, live and play, and what we’re needing now is rooftops."
Council members also agreed that it made little sense to contest the Aurora project outside of city limits because of concerns about how it may affect future development, but then turn around and approve another large project within city limits on prime residential real estate.
"If we’re talking about imminent development, I think this location would classify as imminent for the city of Annandale," said Gunnarson.
A more detailed proposal for the project will have to come before the council for action steps to be taken, but council members agreed that it was beneficial to discuss the matter beforehand and be on the same page since the company has been contacting individual members ahead of time.
They also discussed the possibility of revisiting city development plans to see if there are areas where solar development could be guided toward in the future with minimal impact on the city’s other interests.
"I’m not saying it isn’t a good project," said Hinnenkamp. "But it’s just like any project, if you put it in the wrong spot where it’s going to have a negative impact on the surrounding areas or on the overall plan of the city, then it’s just in the wrong spot."
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