City council delays Brightfields vote

Mayor Mike Henry and the city council abruptly tabled a planned vote Tuesday night on a permit for a contentious solar development on Carbondale's northeast side, with the mayor asking simply: "Is there money coming to the city?"

In a surprise to many at Tuesday's meeting, Henry announced at the outset that the council's planned consideration of a special use permit for Brightfields Development LLC to develop a solar energy array at the site of the former Koppers Wood Treatment Plant on North Marion Street would be put on hold until the council's Oct. 23 meeting.

That decision, Henry said, followed a conversation he had earlier that afternoon with Daniel Voss, a Brightfields vice president, regarding what the current financial incentive would be to the city for allowing development of the 73-acre solar array, which is expected to produce about 20 megawatts of electricity.

Jessica Bradshaw was the only council member to vote against tabling the measure.

The city first approved a special use permit for the site in 2015, and the renewal process this year has been filled with the same tensions that characterized the process three years ago - namely, lingering questions over environmental issues left in the wake of the Koppers plant, which used a large amount of a chemical called creosote. Last month, the Carbondale Planning Commission recommended the full city council deny the permit.

Koppers operated at the site from 1902 to 1991, and many who worked there or lived in the nearby neighborhoods have pointed to the creosote as the source of long-term health issues. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency has concluded the site is no longer contaminated, yet residents of the northeast side have remained steadfastly opposed, contending that the legacy of Koppers is one of environmental racism, and that no redevelopment of the property should be done without some form of retribution to the community that was damaged.

Shortly after the approval of the 2015 permit, the city sought public suggestions for how the expected Brightfields money might be used in the community. At the time, the city said Brightfields was considering providing up to $25,000 per megawatt per year to the city, for a potential total of $500,000 a year.

Henry, who on occasion was at odds with the audience at Tuesday's meeting, said his phone call with Voss was an attempt to update the details of Brightfields' financial compensation plan to the city. Henry said Voss will take those concerns to the Brightfields leadership, who will return with a firmer answer ahead of the council's next planned vote on the permit Oct. 23.

Voss, who was at Tuesday's meeting, said the company will work to "solidify that commercial value." Henry added that the process will not be a negotiation between the city and Brightfields, but rather Brightfields coming up with a number and bringing it back for the city's consideration.

"They just hadn't done that yet," Henry said.</group><group id="EBEAC137-7026-4199-A449-8789CD005DC7" type="seoLabels"><seoLabels>