Kossuth County sends draft solar ordinance issues to outside counsel; appoints Ehlers & Cooney for review

Kossuth County supervisors directed county staff to send a draft of proposed large-scale solar ordinance provisions to outside counsel and unanimously appointed the law firm Ehlers & Cooney to assist with the drafting and review.

At the meeting supervisors reviewed a list of draft policy points they want the county attorney and outside counsel to examine. Key items included setbacks from subsurface tile (100 feet), setbacks from open drainage ditches (300 feet), adherence to Federal Aviation Administration standards for airports, a required decommissioning plan that leaves no decommissioning liability to the county, a road-use and repair agreement, a suggested maximum panel height of 20 feet, options for required security fencing, a 50-foot buffer from property lines, and applicability thresholds for the ordinance to utility-scale projects greater than 30 acres or greater than 10 megawatts. Supervisors also asked for a separate, general battery storage ordinance to be drafted in parallel.

Board members discussed screening requirements, waiver options for adjacent property owners, and the need for maps showing how different setback distances (for example 500 feet or 1,000 feet from occupied residences) would affect land availability. The supervisors agreed to provide existing wind-project road-use and decommissioning documents to counsel as templates.

The board voted 5–0 to appoint Ehlers & Cooney and directed staff to send the draft materials to Maria Brownell at that firm. Supervisors said they expect counsel to return draft ordinance language and recommended templates that the county can consider before finalizing rules and scheduling public hearings.