Boulder City Council extends Townsite solar/battery option with tightened fire‑safety terms

Boulder City’s council voted unanimously to extend by one year an existing option‑to‑lease agreement for a Town Site parcel that a developer intends to use for solar generation and battery energy storage, approving amendments that raise projected city revenue and incorporate new safety provisions. The vote took place after public comment flagged fire‑safety concerns and weeks of staff negotiation with the applicant.

The city attorney said the amendment updates financial terms to reflect recent appraisals and adds charges tied to installed capacity; the applicant told council the changes increase expected revenue to the city by about $400,000 to roughly $630,000. Applicant representatives said they were expanding the planned installed capacity in the amended design to about 167 megawatts and that, under the revised terms, the project would be assessed a per‑megawatt fee to cover fire‑safety costs.

“We are incorporating all the lessons learned from the recent fire into the design of our project,” said Richard Lamers, speaking on behalf of the applicant, noting additional coordination with the fire department and planned on‑site measures. During public comment, Aaron Meadow urged the council not to approve further battery storage without stricter safety stipulations, saying, “I have deep concerns about adding more battery storage … there’s issues on putting out these battery fires.”

The city attorney and applicant described several new contract commitments: on‑site fire‑suppression systems acceptable to the city, minimum water requirements and on‑site personnel during operations, indemnification language to ensure costs from any fire response are borne by the project operator, and a fire‑safety assessment fee tied to installed capacity. Council members pressed for clarity on benchmarks and asked whether staff could add automatic milestones; attorneys said benchmarks could be negotiated but that drafting precise language tonight would be impractical with the agreement expiring at month end.

Councilors also questioned the timeline for the project and the applicant’s progress marketing the power; the applicant said it has invested more than $8 million in site work and interconnection studies and is actively marketing capacity and energy offtake agreements. The council voted to approve the ordinance amendment extending the option period for one year, with the city manager and city attorney continuing to work with applicant and fire officials to finalize technical, permitting and operational details.

What’s next: staff will implement the amended terms and continue permit‑level review of the project; council and city staff said they expect additional coordination with the fire department and to see evidence of near‑term commercial offtake activity if the developer requests any further extensions.