Vote on solar project near Whitney House again postponed

DIXON — A Lee County Board decision on whether to approve a six-megawatt solar farm near the historic Col. Nathan Whitney House has been postponed another month.

“The county would like this topic to remain on the table, because we’re waiting for a recommendation from the State Historic Preservation Office,” Vice Chairperson Tom Kitson said at the board’s Thursday meeting. Kitson ran the meeting, as board Chairperson Bob Olson was absent.

Board members originally were set to vote during their June meeting, but instead tabled the vote.

Amboy IL Solar 1 LLC, a part of Distributed Solar Development LLC owned by BlackRock, is looking to develop a six-megawatt solar farm on about 30 acres of land behind and to one or both sides of the Whitney House.

Located at 1620 Whitney Road, Franklin Grove, the Whitney House has been part of the National Register of Historic Places since 1990. It was built in 1860 for Col. Nathan Whitney, a veteran of the War of 1812, who settled in the area in 1836 and founded the Franklin Grove Nursery and Orchards.

Whitney House owner George Breust began talking about the house, but was told by Kitson that he was not allowed to talk about the house because a hearing already took place on the proposed project.

“George, I’m sorry. It cannot be on that. It can only be on the solar,” Kitson said.

Local historian Mark Wagner was given a similar warning and told he only could talk about the land around the Whitney House, but was not allowed to enter any new evidence.

“By direction of the state’s attorney, we can’t let you do that,” Kitson said. “The board is sitting. If you think about a jury, you would not go to the jury room after the trial had ceased for the jury and talk to them. That’s where the board’s at.”

Wagner, who is part of Farming Heritage — a Franklin Grove organization that promotes local history and tourism — said only the historical property of the Whitney House is being considered, but that the historical value of the property around the house also should be considered.

“Don’t get swayed by thinking only the house and the architecture matters,” he said. “It’s not just the house. It’s the orchards, the land around it that was arable then and it’s arable now, and we’d like to keep it that way for our history.”

Lee County Zoning and Planning Renewable Energy Coordinator Alice Henkel attended a consulting party planning meeting Wednesday hosted by the State Historic Preservation Office. Also in attendance at the meeting were representatives for the developer, the developer’s legal counsel, representatives from the third-party consultant who performed the historical studies, four members of the State Historic Preservation Office, and Kim Neilson, Breust’s daughter.

“During this meeting, the third-party consultant walked the State Historic Preservation Office through their method of coming to their findings,” Henkel said. “Ms. Neilson was given an opportunity to voice her concerns regarding the project.”

Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Anthony Rubano informed Nielson that their job isn’t to stop a project, but to identify adverse effects of a project and then recommend mitigation of those adverse effects, Henkel recounted.

Henkel said the state still is conducting its review of the project and will be taking further statements from the third-party consultant and Neilson. The estimated timeframe for that review is two to three weeks, she said.

Those findings will be shared with the Lee County Board, Kitson said.

“By next month, we should know something and be able to end this whole thing,” he said.