DeKalb County residents call on planning, zoning officials to revisit solar energy ordinance

SYCAMORE – Megan Sippel of the 5900 block of West Clare Road in Clare said during a DeKalb County planning and zoning committee meeting this week her family moved to the area in 2015 when she was pregnant with her second son. She said she and her husband are graduates of Northern Illinois University and, after living in Sycamore during college, decided to call DeKalb County home.

Sippel said the home was the 35th property the family looked at. After a tour of the property and meeting the neighbors, they were sold, she said.

About a week-and-a-half ago, Sippel said the family lost their home in a fire and “are now faced with the difficult and unexpected decision of rebuilding our home in Clare or purchasing property elsewhere.”

“Knowing how the current community feels about being surrounded by solar panels, I cannot fathom how investing in property in Clare would be a good financial investment if the solar panels are installed,” Sippel said. “And the truth is, we have serious concerns about raising our boys in a community surrounded by 3,700 acres of 15-foot industrial solar panels.”

Sippel’s comments during the Wednesday meeting came after members of Concerned Citizens for DeKalb County, a group that was originally created to address concerns about the county’s wind energy ordinance approved in 2018, urged county zoning officials this month to revisit the county’s solar energy ordinance. The urgings came after rumblings of industrial solar energy projects coming to the county reached neighboring residents who were concerned about how they might be affected by those types of projects.

The citizens claimed county board members didn’t suspect that, in next couple of years after the 2018 solar ordinance was approved, the board would be talking about massive industrial solar farms as opposed to smaller panels and arrays that would be more fit for community solar power.

“I know if they did, I’m sure the ordinance would look entirely different than it does now,” Brad Belanger, who heads Concerned Citizens for DeKalb County, said during the Wednesday meeting.

Following the reported EF-3 tornado that ripped through DuPage County on Sunday, June 20, residents voiced other concerns about possible environmental impacts from damaged solar panels of that size. They also wanted to see further setbacks, decommissioning and total volume of land occupied by solar energy projects be further addressed.

Derek Hiland, community development director for DeKalb County, said Wednesday that, as far as he was aware, there has been one application for an industrial solar energy project submitted to the county so far and it came in this week, though he did not provide the name of the applicant. He also said the application doesn’t make the project a done deal, since solar energy projects are all special uses and therefore subject to public hearings.

“But remember what the special use purpose is for,” Hiland said. “Its purpose is to look at each project individually, uniquely‚ to see how it blends with the fabric of the area it’s being contemplated for.”

Steve Faivre, chairman for the county’s planning and zoning commission, agreed.

“I think the hearing on this one will tell us a lot,” Faivre said.

Members of the county committee directed county zoning staff to schedule a hearing for the aforementioned project at a later date.