North Platte Planning Commission approves airport project with solar farm regulations

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – Clean and renewable energy was a major topic at Tuesday’s September meeting of the North Platte City Planning Commission.

Planning commissioners discussed solar panels and solar farms, as well as regulations and where potential solar panels or farms could legally go under the ordinance. City officials wanted to get ahead of this growing trend, since the city currently has no regulations or ordinances.

According to Judy Clark, North Platte planning and zoning administrator, city officials wanted to move forward.

“Items six and seven on the agenda are about solar farms. The city of North Platte currently doesn’t have any provisions in the ordinance regarding the development and construction of solar farms, so we just felt it was appropriate to include some of those in the regulations in case we have some future solar farm projects,” Clark said.

Planning commissioners also discussed a potential new project at North Platte Regional Airport, with the airport authority asking for new locations for its towers.

These towers will aid in air communications and weather information. The National Weather Service in North Platte currently uses a tower at the North Platte Regional Airport to aid in weather forecasting and prediction.

In order to be able to erect such towers, the airport must obtain a number of permits for their operation.

“The airport is asking for three telecommunications towers, not that they’re actually new; they’re going to be in a new location. They have existing towers in place, and those are communications facilities for aviation and weather purposes, and our regulations require that any telecommunications tower has a conditional designation,” Clark said.

Both planning commission agenda items regarding solar farms and telecommunications towers at the airport were adopted and will be presented to city council at its October 1 meeting.

Click here to subscribe to our daily news digest KNOP News 2 and receive the latest news directly to your email inbox.