PHELAN – News of the Planning Commission’s public hearing to consider a permit for a 50-acre solar facility in Phelan almost went unnoticed.
“Nobody has been notified! This is the first we are hearing about the hearing,” A member of the White Road Property Owners Association said in response to the Bee’s post on Facebook. “(The) county is acting illegally I believe!”
With more than 200 signatures from residents in opposition to the Phelan project, members of the White Road Property Owners Association are very eager to know about any public meetings regarding the status of this project.
The location of the proposed project in Phelan is west of White Road, south of Nielson Road, and north of Muscatel Street, according to the Planning Commission staff report.
If the conditional use permit is approved, the 5.8-megawatt photovoltaic solar farm would be installed by the applicant, SunEdison, in partnership with the Snowline Joint Unified School District. The school district currently is leasing the land to SunEdison for a four percent return on the company’s revenues from the solar facility.
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Members of the White Road POA told the Bee that the Planning Commission staff report is misleading when it claims that “25 hearing notices” were sent out to the community on Apr. 3. The POA believes county officials, along with the applicant, are intent on pushing the solar project through without taking community input seriously.
“Nobody got notices. Not one person I know of has gotten a notice (for Thursday’s meeting). And these are people who are going to have these things right in their backyards,” Teri Morelli, vice president of the White Road POA, told the Bee. “I’m livid that they’re pushing this thing through.”
Morelli said she has gone door-to-door talking with residents who would be directly impacted by the proposed solar project. The consensus is that “nobody wants it.”
According to Morelli, the problem is that the 50-acre solar facility is “going up” directly in front and behind property owners’ homes.
“It is enclosing them in where they have no road access away from it,” she said. “We’ve got elderly people who are going to need emergency response coming in, and there’s no way that that’s going to happen … We’ve got one family who’s going to open up their front window, and it’s going to be nothing but these solar panels.”
Socorro Cisneros, president of the White Road POA, echoed Morelli’s concerns about emergency access. “This project that they are proposing is going to actually cut off two, if not more, residents from any street (access) – cutting them off in the case of an emergency,” she said. “And they’ve been on that road for 30 years.”
The commission’s staff report fails to note any impediments to road access for nearby residents, stating that “surrounding development is scattered low density rural residential and traffic volumes on area roadways are light as well. The project would generate negligible traffic during operations; and therefore, would not require an increase in roadway capacity or changes in roadway design.”
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Cisneros explained that the school district owns the proposed site, which was originally intended for building a high school. But when that idea was scrapped, the property was tapped for SunEdison’s solar project. The solar company then entered into an annual lease of about $100,000 with the school district, according to Cisneros.
“But the contract is done, and at this point they are applying for the permit from the county, who has reviewed the environmental impact report, and is now recommending to go ahead with the project,” Cisneros said.
Morelli said the inappropriate location of the project also will drive down people’s property values – so why not consider relocating this solar project?
“If they want to use the High Desert for big solar projects, they can do that – there’s plenty of room way out in the middle of the desert,” she said. “Why stick them right next to residences?”
If the permit is approved, Cisneros said she would continue to fight to stop the project. “Quite frankly, I’m one of the few residents who have younger children,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with solar energy – it’s good for the environment – but there’s a place for everything, and right smack in the middle of a residential district is not acceptable.”
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Documentation for Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting is available at sbcounty.gov/…/SunEdisonWhiteRoad.pdf.
The agenda for the San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting is available at sbcounty.gov/…/pc041714Agenda.pdf. The meeting takes place 9 a.m. Thursday, Apr. 17 in the County Government Center Covington Chambers, 385 N. Arrowhead Avenue, 1st Floor, San Bernardino, Ca. 92415.
