By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A brief debate ensued during Tuesday's Barton County Commission meeting on whether or not public comments would be heard at Friday's special commission meeting scheduled so the board can vote on commercial solar development regulations before the moratorium on solar development expires on March 31. But the commission did hear from three residents during Tuesday's meeting. Landowner Steve Neeland and his sister, Trish Bryant, expressed some concerns over the proposed regulations. Neeland's primary complaint was the proposed expansion of a one-mile no-build zone around Cheyenne Bottoms to two miles.
"The pink area represents the no-build zone," he said. "I've quantified that, and I believe it's around 25,000 acres. That's huge. That's what we're restricting the property rights of those owners on. Twenty-five thousand acres."
Neeland estimates an additional mile expansion of the zone would add another 22,000 acres to that figure. He estimated that proposed leases in that zone represent just 1,500 acres, or approximately seven percent of the total area that would be restricted under the proposed change. He suggested using current zoning regulations like those used on another recent project in the county.
"You looked at her putting up a building on 80 acres south of town," Neeland said. "You went and looked at it. You looked at the construction of the building. They got approved. Why don't we look at it like that; each one? I think that would be good common sense, to look at it, because that's what we already do now."
Neeland also expressed concerns about a 1,000-foot setback of solar development in the proposed regulations, stating that would leave virtually no room for development on an 80-acre tract of land.
The board of commissioners will vote on the proposed solar regulations in a special meeting on Friday, March 29, at 9 a.m.