Adelanto council nixes one solar project, green-lights two others

ADELANTO • The City Council has green-lighted two solar developments and denied a smaller solar project on the basis it wouldn’t be the best use of industrial park land.

On a split vote, the Adelanto City Council nixed a 1.5-megawatt solar plant proposed on 10.95 acres proposed on Industrial Way between Koala and Beaver roads.

Avalon Development tried Wednesday night to convince the Council to approve it, despite a Planning Commission recommendation to reject it because it would take up valuable industrial land without providing many benefits to the city. The company offered to pay the full amount of roughly $380,000 in development impact fees, according to Mayor Cari Thomas, even though the Council had recently decided to discounted fees for solar projects.

Thomas and Councilman Steve Baisden opposed the decision to reject the project.

“I think that the one-time funds that they would bring into the general fund outweigh the chance for us in the next 20 years or so of filling that space,” Thomas said by phone Thursday. “I mean I would love to see a business come in tomorrow, but unfortunately an 8 percent growth rate in the industrial park in the last 20 years doesn’t give much hope that we’re going to run out of land out there.”

At the same meeting, the Council approved Native Sun Power’s planned 4-megawatt photovoltaic plant on 35 acres near Rancho and Vinton roads. The plant aims to provide discounted electricity to nearby correctional facilities. Native Sun Power has also committed to give the city 5 cents for every kilowatt hour of electricity it sells for its first five years of operation. City Manager Jim Hart estimates the deal could put some $200,000 into city coffers.

The Council also advanced a 20-megawatt photovoltaic plant by Re Victor Phelan Solar One LLC. The project is planned on 160 acres of open desert along the city’s western limits, north of Palmdale Road and west of Baldy Mesa Road. The solar company has agreed to pay city fees to realign a drainage channel around a small portion of the project.

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at NLindstrom@VVDailyPress.com.

Get complete stories every day with the "exactly as printed" Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.