One down, two to go for the Hardy Hills Solar Project to become official.
The Clinton County Council voted unanimously Tuesday morning to approve a pair of resolutions on a project agreement to be constructed in Union and Owen Townships in the Kilmore area. The Clinton County Commissioners and Area Plan Commission must still give their blessings on the project before it moves forward.
Clinton County Council President Alan Dunn said this is an enormous project that is really hard to wrap your head around.
“It’s larger than the ConAgra project, it’s five times larger in terms of investment than what the NHK project we’re seeing come up right before our eyes at the interchange,” said Dunn. “Rural counties our size don’t get these kinds of opportunities very often.”
One of the resolutions approves the Hardy Hills Project Agreement and concurring with certain authorizing actions of the Board of Commissioners of Clinton County, while the other is a confirmatory resolution for real and personal property tax abatement for the projects.
Invenergy out of Chicago is the group behind the project, which plans to invest nearly $200 million for a proposed solar farm project that will include real property redevelopment or rehabilitation and installation of new manufacturing equipment.
“When the project is in its final assessed value state at the 30 percent forward depreciation level, it will add $67 million of assessed value to the county’s tax rates,” said Dunn. “These are taxes that the project will pay that you and I as citizens will not have to pay at that. I like to call that the taxpayer abatement. It’s a really big deal.”