By: Rebecca Miller
During the Monday morning, February 8, 2021 Williams County Commissioners meeting, with Commissioner Terry Rummel via phone, as he was getting the new Vaccine Call Center up and running, Dalton Carr of APEX Clean Energy shared a PowerPoint.
It covered all aspects of a new project, which they hope to do, of placing a large Solar Field just south of Holiday City, Ohio.
Prior to the 9:00am session in which Carr spoke, the Commissioners took care of some regular business, approving Resolution 64 Supplemental appropriations on behalf of Hillside; Resolution 65 Entering into IV-E Contract on behalf of WC JFS and ENA,Inc.; the minutes for February 4; the payment of bills; and signing an MVPO 2016 CDBG Chip Program subordination request from Ajay Johnson. Rummel said that the Call Center was going live at 9 a.m. and he was “praying for smooth calls all day long, instead of a big rush at 9.”
Commissioner Brian Davis welcomed all who were on the Zoom meeting for the presentation, recognizing some who were present, specifically Thad Boggs who “represents the Board of Commissioners” and Dennis Miller from Maumee Valley Planning Organization.
The Apex project presentation agenda was divided into: About Apex, Montpelier Solar Overview, Local Approvals Needed with MOU and PILOT, an MOU walkthrough, a PILOT walkthrough and a Question and Answer time.
Carr shared his screen so everyone could see the PowerPoint, and began his explanations. (The Apex attorney Ed Dickinson-Wright as well as some other experts from Apex were on the call also.)
APEX Clean Energy is a company that has been developing wind and solar projects across the country since 2009, and recently did the solar field located in the village of Montpelier.
They have a large team in Ohio with a few local representatives and several developers, of which he is one. This new project, The Montpelier Solar Project, would be approximately 500 acres located in Jefferson Township, would have a 49 MegaWatt capacity and would fall within the Montpelier and North Central School Districts.
He said that their approximation is that $343,000 would be split every year between the two schools, the County, the Township and any other taxing entity that was based on the rate.
The 500 acres is just south of Holiday City with St. Rt. 15 cutting through it. The benefits he mentioned for Williams County and the surrounding area were that “Solar projects, like other business developments, contribute to the economic health of the local community through local spending, property tax revenue, and job creation.”
During the construction there would be more than 100 jobs created, with “two direct, long term local jobs employed for operations and maintenance of the project, as well as other jobs such as vegetative management, road repair, plowing, substation/transformer/inverter maintenance and module cleaning when needed.”
The MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), Carr explained is seen as “sort of our permit process with Williams County.” It serves to protect both the County and APEX with a standard of design and proper approval.
The MOU will set the items the company will have to adhere to such as setbacks, height requirements, noise requirements” and other specifics. The Commissioners get to decide what is on the application so they are getting the information they need in order to give the company approval to proceed.
The second part of the Permit Structure is the PILOT (Payments in Lier of Taxes). Carr explained, “It gives us the ability to pay a flat fee every year, rather than having an appreciated asset where we pay less taxes over the years.
It makes it easier for us up front where we have a smaller fee rather than paying taxes through the standard, but it also gives the County and Township and schools benefits as well.”
“It is a structure that was built in Ohio by the legislature and it has certainly been a huge part of wind and solar projects built to date.” The PILOT application goes to the Ohio Development Services Agency for review, who will then reach out to the Commissioners for their approval before issuing that certificate. Using this system gives the County the power to say no, if they so choose.
Also included in the PILOT for the county, besides the payment of fees from APEX, are the following: APEX would “train local fire and emergency responders, provide equipment if there is any new equipment necessary in order to deal with potential issues at the project, develop a University Apprenticeship Program, and hire at least 80% Ohio domiciled employees.”
Some of the design standard requirements about which he spoke concerned distance for effective screening…300 feet from any nonparticipating occupied building that exists at the time of construction, 100 feet from any participating occupied building, 10 feet from the edge of any public Right of Way, 10 feet from any streams and wetlands, and 15 feet from any railroad, or gas transmission or distribution line.
The maximum height of the solar modules will be 18 feet and the safety requirements are that a fence will be installed around perimeters, Knox boxes and keys will be provided at locked entrances for personnel access and appropriate warning signs will be placed with approval of the WC Engineer.
For those who might be concerned about noise, “During operation, the sound from the project will be limited to: 50 A-weighted decibels at a nonparticipating property boundary, and 45 dBA at a nonparticipating occupied building that exists at the time of construction of the Project.”
Project lighting will be limited to the minimum necessary. They are working on a study that will inform them of the noise level that it will be and ensure that they can abide by that standard.
He explained a number of technicalities concerning the application, saying, “There are going to be some constraints we don’t know about until we finish our geotechnical work and some other studies.”
The title assessment, land surveys and pre-construction engineering documents will all be shared with the county before the Commissioners are asked to approve the project.
They will be working closely with County Engineer Todd Roth. He also stated that APEX plans to cover any cost associated with the application.
As he wrapped up his presentation he stated that what he needs from the Commissioners at this time are the understanding of the “path forward and timing for submittal of application, following approval of MOU terms,” and “Ability to file application Ohio DSA now, giving Williams County over 30 days to confirm.”
He added, “We need to understand what taxes we are going to be paying, what the project is going to look like and that is where the MOU comes into play. The sooner we know those factors, the sooner we can get moving forward with the project.”
Commissioner Davis stated, “One thing I want to make clear beforehand is based on the $343,000 in projected taxable revenue, under that scenario the County itself would only receive approximately $11,000.”
“The balance of that would ball be paid out to the other entities that were on the sheet, school districts and townships and the like. I just wanted to make that clear.”
Attorney Thad Boggs thanked Mr. Carr for a clear presentation and for covering “a lot of the important factors for consideration.” He expressed his hope that clarity is strong in the MOU so they are sure to have “a document that people will look toward for the entire operation and authority to understand what everyone was thinking when this project started.”
They want to make sure that “everyone is happy at the end of the day and it doesn’t come back five years from now, that there was ill feeling at the outset of the agreement.” As far as the PILOT is concerned, Boggs said that he feels that the right things are being discussed and they are off to a good start.
There was a Q&A time in which Commissioner Hilkert asked Engineer Roth to address the 10 foot setback for wetlands and waterways. Roth said that they are having conversations about that, including that there is a tile of record as well as a ditch of record going through some of the properties.
He gave some more details and said that it would definitely require some more specific conversation and solidification of details. Roth also addressed the need for a Simplified Road Use Maintenance Agreement (RUMA) “for some work that the Turnpike wanted to do in the use of our road.”
Hilkert also asked, “In regards to the project that is being proposed, it is 49 megawatts. Let’s say five years, ten years down the road you want to expand that and it becomes 60 megawatts. Will we need to re-do that MOU at that time to include the additional megawatts being produced?”
Carr affirmed that would be the case and Hilkert added, “I see this is a 40 year annual tax revenue for Williams County. At such time that this project would be decommissioned, what kind of language is available to clean up the property and tear down what has been placed on those properties?”
Carr assured the Commissioners that a decommissioning plan is included right at the outset. The company also has to “provide a bond or some financial assurance before construction begins,” so that would be in place to ensure that the money is available at the time the facilities need to be removed.
MVPO representative Dennis Miller inquired as to whether the $7000 per megawatt in the PILOT is based on capacity or what is actually generated and Carr answered that it is on Capacity, or what is there.
Commissioner Davis clarified, asking Boggs to affirm, that “it is not an issue of whether the County will or will not permit this project. It is an issue of whether we will participate in this project. If the Commissioners choose not to enter into an MOU, APEX still has a method in which to pursue this project. It just wouldn’t get the defrayed taxes that they would have enjoyed had we participated.”
Boggs stated, “Given that the County itself is not zoned so there is no use restriction that would prevent it.” He pointed out that it might not be doable for APEX without the county, but said that there is “a path for improvement even without an agreement, but this certainly makes the path a lot smoother for everybody concerned, provided that we have a clear understanding in place of what everyone’s responsibilities are.”
Some discussion was held about screening, or having trees that would block the view a little, to “make this as pleasing as possible for our residents.” Roth asked about how the PILOT payments are done and Boggs explained that “By statute, that $7000 per megawatt of capacity is sent to the County Auditor and distributed based on location, set to the formula that any other tax would be in terms of distribution to other agencies.”
It was agreed that they should move forward with counsel to review the MOU, identify what needs to be changed in it and then get it back to APEX for their review.
That portion of the Commissioners’ meeting ended and they went into Executive Session for discipline, with no action taken before Adjournment for the day.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
