NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. — According to Reno County Planner Mark Vonachen, the county planning commission is almost ready for the public to weigh in on the commercial solar regulations for the county.
"We're going to take a look at one last draft, if you will and review any other comments or questions with that," Vonachen said. "If all goes well, then we will look at setting a public hearing date for the regulations. The public will get a chance to come in and formally comment on the regulations proposal."
Due to the need for 20 day advance publication of the public hearing date, the planning commission is going to have a special meeting next month before their normal date to look at this final draft. That special meeting date isn't set yet and there won't be public comments at that meeting, anyway.
"I need some time to be able to get notices out to the cities and the townships," Vonachen said. "That's one of the requirements here. It really just kind of depends on when they want to have it. We're going to kind of try and get together, tentatively, right now, I think it's going to be Sept. 5."
That date is a Tuesday. The planning commission normally meets on the third Thursday of the month in the afternoon, so a public hearing would not be any sooner than early October, and most likely would be later that month. At this point, the board plans to have the meeting at the Public Works building in South Hutchinson, where it normally is.
"They might just be on our regular public hearing schedule," Vonachen said. "I don't know if they want to have a special meeting date or not. That's really going to be up to the planning commission, because our goal is to meet the deadline of Dec. 31 that the commissioners set for the end of the moratorium."
The latest draft that the planning commission will look at has been updated on the county's website at renogov.org.
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