Commissioners deny preliminary approval for 199 MW AES Yampa Valley solar project after lengthy public hearing

The Moffat County Board of County Commissioners denied preliminary approval Feb. 25 of applications from AES Yampa Valley Solar LLC to rezone up to 2,200 acres and to permit a 199-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility paired with a 100-megawatt/4-hour (400 megawatt-hour) battery storage system, following a public hearing that drew more than two dozen speakers and detailed presentations from the developer and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The project team told commissioners the proposed site lies about 4 miles southwest of Craig along County Road 30 and Highway 40 and would sit within roughly 3,800 leased acres, with an initial fenced project footprint of roughly 1,400 acres and up to 2,200 acres to be rezoned to heavy industrial for the facility. AES representatives said the development life would be at least 30 years, construction would be phased and the company would remove equipment and restore land under a decommissioning plan at the end of the project.

AES development manager Grama Bascica described the company and the project, saying AES is a U.S.-based independent power producer that develops and operates renewable projects. Permitting lead Libby Fortin summarized on-site environmental work and said AES had avoided mapped greater sage-grouse habitat and redesigned fencing into separate array "pods" with wide breaks to preserve wildlife movement. Fortin said that coordination with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other agencies informed mitigation measures and that additional studies would follow before final approval. "We reviewed radio telemetry data of big game movement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and incorporated this data into our project design," Fortin said.

In testimony, AES said the facility would interconnect to a Tri-State 345-kilovolt line through the project parcel, that the battery containers are designed with sensors and automatic shutdowns and that the company plans local workforce and training programs. AES also provided an economic estimate of roughly $500 million in construction cost and an estimated $15 million in tax revenue over the life of the project, and said about 60 percent of that tax revenue would go to local schools.

County planning staff and AES representatives told the board the permit review would be phased: the countywould consider preliminary approval subject to a long list of conditions and then require AES to demonstrate they had met each condition (including interconnection, traffic and environmental studies, road-use agreements and emergency-service plans) before final approval and any ground disturbance. Candice Miller, Moffat County planning and zoning coordinator, read the planning commissionrecommendation and listed the conditions AES would be expected to meet, including documentation of a signed interconnection agreement, a traffic study and road-use plan, county road permits and a maintenance agreement, a feasibility study for an alternate access point to reduce use of County Road 30, coordination with local emergency services and fire response planning, and evidence of ongoing coordination with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Residents and other speakers overwhelmingly urged denial or further study. Common concerns included heavy construction traffic on narrow County Road 30, emergency response times, dust and water use during construction, potential erosion on local soils, wildfire risk and response to battery fires, impacts on big-game migration and winter range, loss of agricultural land and potential negative effects on property values. Mark Anderson, who lives near the leased land, said the project would start about 300 yards from his house and warned of dust and disruption: "We have a special needs daughter who is considered medically fragile. The dust that comes off naturally is something to deal with. I can't even imagine what two plus years of building is going to cause us health wise." Jonathan Lambert, area wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the board: "The biggest thing...is the responsibility of decision makers to think about the long term and big picture and also the cumulative impacts."

AES responded to fire-safety concerns. Project engineer Travis Stowers said the company's review of its operating portfolio identified eight equipment-failure events over the last two years and that "none of the fire associated with it escaped beyond the parcel boundary, beyond the footprint of our actual project." AES said battery containers are designed to limit propagation and that the company will provide first-responder plans and training.

After public comment and questions, a commissioner moved to deny the zone-change and conditional-use applications; another commissioner seconded the motion. The board recorded the motion as carried by voice vote; the clerk recorded the outcome as approved (motion to deny approved).

Commissioners debated competing principles in their discussion: private property rights of landowners who leased acreage for the project; potential long-term fiscal consequences tied to energy transitions in the region; and the scale of community concerns, especially around roads, emergency access and wildlife. One commissioner said the issue illustrated the hard line territory of "when does your landowner right trump my landowner right?" and asked whether alternatives to the proposed site and access had been fully explored.

The county planning office and AES representatives told the board they would continue to document communications, studies and any changes related to the project. AES also said it would provide the fire-incident report and other supporting documents to the county as requested.

The denial at the Feb. 25 meeting was a preliminary decision on the applications as presented; planning staff emphasized that the company could return to the county with revised materials, additional studies or a different proposal in the future. The county did not provide a formal roll-call vote in the public record beyond "aye" and "motion carries."