Why the Sussex County Council is being sued over a solar farm permit

A company hoping to build a solar farm in Frankford is suing the Sussex County Council after they denied an application for a conditional use permit.

Frankford Community Energy Initiative II LLC applied for the permit in April 2022, hoping to use about 18 acres of a 43-acre property off Dupont Boulevard (Route 113) for a solar farm. Despite the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommending approval of the application in July, the County Council denied the permit in August.

Immediately after that denial, they approved a permit for a larger solar farm a little over a mile away.

Councilman Douglas Hudson was one of three council members to vote against the Frankford Community Energy Initiative permit and had the most to say on the matter.

“In the last short period of time we’ve had a lot of solar … arrays requested, and I think that, depending on where the application is requested to go, we need to give a lot of scrutiny,” he said. “And gotta keep in mind ag(riculture) is number one, so I think we need to be very, very careful about that. Where this one is is very important to farmland, and I’m gonna vote no.”

Frankford Community Energy Initiative's owners are listed in county records as Robert Wilson, Viola Hagberg and Edward Wilgus of Dunedin, Florida. Morris James attorneys David Hutt and Eric Hacker are representing them in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks that the court declare the council's denial invalid, direct the council to approve the application and award any expenses and relief deemed necessary.

Why planning and zoning said yes, but County Council said no

When the county Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the application in July, they offered a list of reasons to support their decision. Those reasons included:

• “This is an adaptive use of farmland that will preserve it from more intensive development.”

• “There was testimony that this solar farm will benefit residential, business, and municipal subscribers with lower power costs.”

• “The proposed use will not have any adverse impact on the neighborhood.”

• “There was no opposition to the Application.”

The County Council held a hearing on the application in August, during which there were no public comments, but deferred their decision. A few weeks later, they voted 3-2 to deny.

Councilpersons Doug Hudson, Mark Schaeffer and Cynthia Green voted against the application, while Councilman John Rieley and President Michael Vincent voted for it.

Only about 9 acres of it are "tillable," according to the lawsuit. The rest are forested.

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After Hudson gave his reasoning for voting against the application, Schaeffer said he didn’t feel the land was an appropriate location for a solar farm. Greene said she voted against the application “based on testimony here this morning.” There was no testimony at the hearing.

Hudson and Schaeffer, when reached by phone, had both recently spoken to “county staff” who advised them to decline to comment on the lawsuit, they said.

Why a nearby solar farm was approved

As the lawsuit points out, the application immediately following Frankford Community Energy Initiative's was unanimously approved. Despite Hudson’s farmland concerns, he voted in favor of a permit that allows for a larger solar field only about a mile and a half north of the one he denied.

Applicant Sussex CSG 2 LLC plans to build a 28-acre solar farm on farmland, more than three times the amount of farmland Frankford Community Energy Initiative hoped to use.

“This particular piece of property is not right on the highway and that makes a big difference,” Hudson said when voting to approve the permit.

The property owner of the Sussex CSG 2 project is listed as Frankford Center LLC in Reston, Virginia, while Sussex CSG 2 LLC is listed in the care of Sam Youneszadeh in Atlanta, county records say. Youneszadeh is a co-founder of Dimension Renewable Energy.

Dimension is “a leading developer and operator of community solar solutions,” according to the company website, with over 400 projects across 15 states that account for 2 gigawatts of electricity. Two gigawatts are equal to about 620 utility-scale wind turbines, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Lawsuit filed over Sussex County Council's denial of solar permit