Pueblo County approves 1041 permit for Arroyo (Bridal) Solar project

PUEBLO — The Pueblo County Board of County Commissioners voted to approve a 1041 permit for the Arroyo (Bridal) Solar Project, an applicant-led utility-scale solar and potential battery storage project sited south of the Comanche generating station.

The permit approved case SLI-24-8, filed by RE Arroyo LLC, to construct and operate a ground-mounted photovoltaic facility sited primarily on private and state land in unincorporated Pueblo County. The project area was described in the hearing as roughly 2,656 acres, with about 1,636 acres of actual infrastructure footprint. The applicant representatives said the project would interconnect at Comanche and ultimately be transferred to Xcel Energy for construction, ownership and operation.

The applicant’s consultant, Clint Heimbaugh of SWCA Environmental Consultants, said the development team has completed multiple due-diligence studies including biological and aquatic inventories, burrowing-owl surveys, cultural resource surveys (Class 1 desktop and Class 3 field work), a vegetation plan and a phase 1 environmental site assessment. Heimbaugh said project design includes wildlife-friendly fencing and measures to avoid wetlands and high-priority habitats where practicable.

Virginia Wiseman, identified in the hearing as West Region Director for project development for Enel (the developer partner on the project), provided workforce and tax estimates. Wiseman said the contractor anticipates approximately 327 workers during peak construction, with about 71% expected to be Colorado residents; she said 6–8 full-time and 1–3 part-time positions are expected during operations. Wiseman offered an annual tax estimate “over $800,000 a year” and a rough lifetime tax estimate of approximately $28,000,000 over a 35-year project life.

County staff and the applicant told commissioners that decommissioning plans will be required before construction and that a security bond will be posted to ensure site restoration at the end of the facility’s operational life. The applicant said aboveground and certain belowground infrastructure would be removed at decommissioning and disturbed non‑vegetated areas would be revegetated with locally appropriate seed mixes in coordination with agencies such as NRCS and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Questions during the hearing focused on local hiring, haul-route enforcement and valuation for property taxes during construction. Frank Beltran, County Assessor, asked whether the facility would be state-assessed (the facility was described as exceeding 2 megawatts) and how revenue would be reported; Wiseman and others said the project is expected to transfer to Xcel Energy prior to construction and that state assessment and tax reporting details would be finalized as ownership and engineering are completed. County staff and the applicant agreed to follow up on tax-reporting specifics with the assessor’s office after the hearing.

Several county officials raised the board’s ongoing interest in local hiring. Wiseman said Mortenson (the contractor) conducted a December job fair and that the contractor had made 14 hires from that outreach, 12 of whom she said were Pueblo County residents.

The board accepted the staff report and related materials into the record, heard no public testimony in favor or opposition at the hearing, and then closed the hearing. A commissioner moved to approve SLI-24-8 and the motion passed by voice vote.

The permit approval contains conditions on decommissioning, a road‑use agreement and coordination with CDOT for access permits. County staff told the board that the applicant and staff were working to finalize a decommissioning plan and that the conditions of approval require its completion prior to construction approval.

The board’s action concludes land-use review for this 1041 permit; construction, detailed engineering, final tax reporting and road‑use agreements remain future steps to be completed before building permits are issued.