Fayette County Board Approves Two Solar Applications, Tables Discussion of Two Others

The Fayette County Board on Tuesday evening approved two solar applications and tabled discussion on two more solar applications. During the Consent Agenda period of the meeting, Board Chairman Jacob Harris said he had been advised that two items concerning solar applications from Solamerican, one from Randy Chamberlin and another from Jerrell Whitten were needing to be tabled after Special Use Committee member Ashley Towler had said earlier in reports that two of four applications were ready to be voted on. The board then voted on a solar application from Sunvest that had representative on hand in private developer Ryan Fulton who explained the project would include 7-8 acres of land “inside the fence” and up to a total of 13 aces with setbacks in an area southwest of Interstate 70 between Vandalia and Brownstown. After hearing from Fulton, the board approved the solar application by a vote of 11-0. The board then heard from Desiree Noisette of Sandy Key Solar who is the Permitting Project Manager for parent company Green Key Solar about the application for their project. Noisette said the application is for a 30 acre, 4.25 megawatt project that would also be south of Interstate 70, not too far from the Sunvest project. Noisette said it would be a community project and anyone with an Ameren meter would be able to subscribe to it and see savings of possibly around 10% on their bills. The board then held a roll call vote with the measure passing, 9-1 with Scott Workman casting the lone “no” vote and Ashley Towler abstaining from the vote.