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Montezuma County adopts six-month moratorium on new utility-scale solar applications
Summary
The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners voted 3-0 to pause acceptance of new utility-scale solar applications for six months while staff and commissioners draft detailed land-use standards; the county will not pause processing of an existing pending application.
Montezuma County commissioners on April 8 voted unanimously to adopt a six-month moratorium on accepting new applications for utility-scale solar projects while the county develops specific land-use criteria for such developments.
The board’s county attorney, Steven Tarnowski, told the meeting the moratorium is intended as temporary legislative action to allow staff and commissioners to craft standards that address visual impacts, decommissioning, financial assurances and road use during construction. "This discussion today is really about the application of the Land Use Code, potential changes to the Land Use Code, [and] the pause that's being considered in accepting new applications," Tarnowski said during the hearing.
The moratorium, as clarified on the record, will pause acceptance of new applications but not halt processing of the single large-scale application already filed with county planning staff. Commissioner Jim Lindsay moved to adopt the six-month moratorium; the motion was seconded and the board voted "Aye" three times to approve the measure.
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