Lee County ZBA opens hearing on two Mount Hill Road commercial solar projects

LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday opened an evidentiary hearing on special-use petitions from Mound Hill Road North Solar LLC and Mound Hill Road South Solar LLC to site two commercial-scale solar energy facilities in Palmyra Township.

The board voted to engage retired Circuit Judge Tim Slavin as an independent facilitator for the proceedings and then heard opening testimony and documentary evidence from the applicants and county staff. No final decision was made; the hearing was continued and additional cross-examination and filings were scheduled.

The petitions, filed Feb. 28, 2025, seek permission for two community-scale solar arrays. Austin Schwier, co‑chief executive officer of Sundial Energy, said the north project is proposed as a 7 megawatt DC (5 MW AC) facility and the south project as a 3 MW DC (2 MW AC) facility. "We will market them to experienced and well capitalized asset managers with, knowledge and experience in the, commercial solar energy facility space and ultimately sell the legal entities that own the projects," Schwier said under oath.

Nick Standiford, the petitioners' land‑use attorney, told the board the applicants submitted large application binders, updated site plans and supporting studies and asked the zoning board to recommend approval to the county board. "My name is Nick Standiford. I'm a land use and zoning attorney at Shane Banks," he said during opening remarks.

Alice Henkel, Lee County zoning administrator, testified about the application record and notice: the county received the petitions and supporting…