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5 <br /> <br />This is the more challenging discussion. While solar gardens provide significant community <br />benefits by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and helping to reduce energy costs, they do <br />change the landscape. While some advocates will argue that solar gardens are simply “growing <br />energy” on cropland instead of traditional crops, others express concern about the appearance of <br />the Community Solar Gardens. The nature of the use is similar to other types of uses allowed in <br />the Rural districts, such as green houses and commercial farming operations. <br /> <br />Community Solar Gardens in rural areas are generally accepted in most communities (albeit with <br />some adjacent neighbor opposition). Locating Community Solar Gardens in these areas generally <br />provides a small tax benefit to the city through a higher tax rate. However, locating them in <br />Commercial/Industrial areas in the MUSA takes away the opportunity for significant tax base <br />when those properties development in a traditional manner. Community Solar Gardens in those <br />districts would provide the same tax benefit as it would on rural residential land. Therefore, there <br />is an opportunity cost to locating land in the MUSA. <br /> <br />Staff has concerns about allowing Community Solar Gardens in the MUSA due to the lost <br />opportunities for development. However, if the Council is supportive of Community Solar <br />Gardens in the MUSA, they should further discuss which zoning districts it should be allowed in <br />(we may wish to look at the underlying land use as well) and which sewer staging area it should <br />be allowed in? <br /> <br />Questions: <br />1. Does the Council want to <br />allow Community Solar <br />Garden in the Rural area <br />(outside of the MUSA)? <br />2. Does the Council want to <br />allow Community Solar <br />Garden in the MUSA? <br />a. Should it be allowed <br />only in certain zoning <br />districts? <br />b. Should it be allowed <br />only in certain land <br />use categories? <br />c. Should it be allowed <br />only certain sanitary sewer staging areas? <br />3. Does the Council wish to continue to prohibit CSG in the City? <br /> <br />Performance standards <br /> <br />If the City Council wishes to proceed with allowing Community Solar Gardens as regulated by <br />Minnesota Statues, we will work to develop performance standards to address the most common <br />issues, including: height, screening/buffering, setbacks and glare. There is good industry <br />guidance on most of these issues, but the screening/buffering issue has been a challenge in some <br />communities. Community Solar Gardens have 6-10 foot high panels, inverter boxes and utility