DeKalb County Board narrowly approves Squaw Grove solar garden

SYCAMORE – A request from a renewable energy company to set up a 5-megawatt commercial solar energy system west of Somonauk Road in Squaw Grove Township has been approved by the DeKalb County Board.

The special permit that was needed for the 49.1-acre solar garden to be built was approved in a 13-11 vote June 26 after multiple people spoke against the solar array at the beginning of the meeting.

Squaw Grove resident Kristin Faber – who’s been outspoken against solar installments in her town – told the DeKalb County Board she believes there were multiple items missing from the special permit application and handed out a paper list of the alleged issues.

Board member Chris Porterfield, a Democrat from District 8, asked DeKalb County Community Development Director Derek Hiland if any of Faber’s allegations had merit.

“I realize it’s a problem if you haven’t read it yet, and I’m going to ask you a question if these things have been satisfied or are these not major issues?” Porterfield said. “It sounds to me like some of them may be technical, maybe nitpicky, but some of them sound quite serious, so I guess my question is, ‘Is it fair to make a decision ... on this if these things have not been addressed at all?’ ”

Hiland did not respond to Porterfield’s question during the meeting and has not responded to a similar question from the Daily Chronicle.

In his response to a separate question from DeKalb County Board member Scott Campbell, a Democrat from District 7, Hiland said the project meets state requirements.

Hiland said the solar project already had been vetted by county committees and in a public hearing.

“The wonderful thing about utilizing an arms-length hearing officer that looks through the technical merits of the petition,” Hiland said. “We submit our recommendations to the hearing officer, the hearing officer receives the testimony, which we heard tonight, [and] we heard at committee meetings. The time and place for those points to be made is at the public hearing. That public hearing occurred. You have what is before you a determination by the hearing officer and the planning and zoning and development committee that all our factors have been met, therefore it was recommended with conditions.”

The special permit request was recommended for approval with 34 conditions, according DeKalb County documents. Among those, is a stipulation that the facility owner replace and upgrade some existing 10-inch and 7-inch subsurface drain tiles on the property with 12-inch drain tiles.

Ironwood Renewables, with Shenandoah Solar, has sought to install a solar garden on the property west of Somonauk Road in Squaw Grove township since at least 2023, when the DeKalb County Board sent a similar special permit request back to a public hearing officer after it was discovered the land proposed for the project splits a drainage district. County officials at the time said they were previously unaware that the project would split the district.

The newly approved project will cover a little more than half of the nearly 96-acre property, and will no longer split the Devine Drainage District, documents show.

The facility will be setback at least 150 feet from the nearest outside wall of an occupied building on a nonparticipating property, and 50 feet from a right-of-way or property line, according to county documents.

Because of state code, the solar panels are allowed to be up to 20 feet tall. Shenandoah Solar and Ironwood Renewables representatives said they did not know exactly how far into the ground the poles holding the solar panels would be placed, or exactly how tall the solar panels will be.

“I think what we’d like to do is use the most up to date technology, so at this point we don’t know,” Project Developer Hamilton Carrier said.

Campbell, as well as fellow Democratic County Board members Mary Cozad, Rukisha Crawford, Meryl Domina, Laura Hoffman, Jim Luebke, Terri Mann-Lamb, Stewart Ogilvie, Michelle Pickett, Chris Porterfield, Amber Quitno and Chair Ellingsworth Webb voted in favor of granting the special permit request. Maureen Little, a Republican DeKalb County Board member from District 1, was the only member of the Republican party to join them.

The only Democrat not to vote in favor of the measure was Benjamin Haier, from District 5. Republican County Board members Tim Bagby, Patrick Deutsch, Laurie Emmer, John Frieders, Rhonda Henke, Savannah Ilenikhena, Kathy Lampkins, Joseph Marcinkowski, Jerry Osland and Roy Plote also voted against the special permit request.

After the vote, Frieders said he was uncomfortable with the solar garden sitting on property drainage tiles area farmers depend upon.

“I know they have more time to get some of these details nailed down, but I was just disappointed in the fact they’re still changing things as they’re coming to us,” Frieders said. “And I know that’s within the rules, but I find that disappointing that they’re still changing things. I just think that property has a lot of different things going on with the drainage and such. That bothers me. That bothers me.”