Government and civic life
🌾 Limiting Industrial Energy Projects Through Local Code
An advocacy course on protecting farmland, small communities and public land from utility-scale solar, wind, battery storage and transmission through Idaho planning and zoning: plan language, districts and tiers, hard standards, bonds, moratoriums, public land limits, the other side's best arguments and how code gets adopted.
- 1The Case for Limits, and Who Controls WhatWhy this course argues for firm local limits on industrial-scale energy projects, which government controls which kind of land in Idaho, and the set of tools a county actually has.14 min
- 2Comprehensive Plan Language That Holds UpWhich components of an Idaho comprehensive plan carry energy siting policy, how to write policy that zoning can lean on, how to quote state policy accurately, and how a plan amendment gets adopted.15 min
- 3Zoning Districts, Overlays and Size TiersHow to turn plan policy into a use table, an overlay zone and a tiered classification by size, with an anti-splitting rule so a large project cannot slip through as several small ones.16 min
- 4Setbacks, Height, Noise and Glare StandardsThe measurable standards that do most of the protective work: setbacks from homes, wells and canals, height limits, noise limits at the property line, shadow flicker caps, glare and lighting, with the arithmetic to check an applicant's numbers.17 min
- 5Fire and Battery Storage Safety StandardsHow to write battery storage and wildfire rules a fire district can enforce: size classes in MWh, zones, setbacks, NFPA 855 and fire code compliance, hazard and emergency plans, inspections and groundwater protection.15 min
- 6Protecting Farmland and Capping Cumulative ImpactHow to write a soil-based farmland protection rule that names the right NRCS data, what the soil and property value research actually shows, and how to cap the combined effect of many projects instead of judging each one alone.17 min
- 7Decommissioning Plans and BondsHow to make sure a project that stops running gets removed and the land restored at the owner's expense: triggers, deadlines, removal depth, cost estimates, salvage value, the 150 percent rule, inflation updates and the forms of security that actually pay.16 min
- 8Moratoriums, and the Limits on Public LandWhat Idaho law allows when a county needs time to write rules, how emergency and interim moratoriums differ, and what a county can and cannot control on BLM land, state endowment land and transmission routes.17 min
- 9The Other Side's Best Arguments, and Getting Code AdoptedThe strongest arguments against local limits (landowner rights, tax revenue, state preemption, takings, vague standards) with the best answers to each, then the steps, notice rules and record that get an energy ordinance adopted and keep it standing.18 min