Morrison County planners recommend one-year moratorium on community solar, solar farms and wind systems, explicitly exempting meteorological towers

The Morrison County Planning Commission voted to recommend that the County Board adopt a one-year interim ordinance moratorium on community solar, solar farms and large wind energy conversion systems while the county develops or revises ordinance language and studies associated infrastructure needs.

Staff explained the moratorium language is the same as presented at an earlier hearing except for a change requested by the County Board: meteorological towers will be excluded from the moratorium. Commissioners agreed that explicit language stating the moratorium does not apply to meteorological towers (which are generally temporary and used to assess wind potential) would provide clarity.

Public commenters expressed a range of views. Several speakers supported the moratorium as a pause to study local suitability, incentives, ownership structures and the connection between generation and transmission projects; concerns included landscape suitability for large commercial wind, the role of out-of-area ownership, and the potential regional demand for power driven by data centers and transmission upgrades. Planning staff said the moratorium period would be used to form a working group, study renewable technologies including biodigesters and data centers, and draft ordinance language (which could be done as a single package or in separate, technology-specific ordinances depending on the board’s approach).

The commission’s recommendation directs that the moratorium language be clarified to exempt meteorological towers and forwards the ordinance language to the County Board for consideration at its May 5 meeting.