Breckenridge Texan

County to host public hearing regarding proposed changes to NextEra wind farm tax abatement agreement

County to host public hearing regarding proposed changes to NextEra wind farm tax abatement agreement
January 19
15:33 2025

Editor’s Note: Following a meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21, County Judge Michael Roach released the proposed amendment to the tax abatement agreement between Stephens County and NextEra/La Casa Wind LLC. The proposal does not include the changes to the Aircraft Detection Lighting System that had been discussed earlier and included in the original article below. Click here to see the proposed amendment to the agreement.

 

By Carla McKeown and Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan

The Stephens County Commissioners Court will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Monday, Feb. 10, at the courthouse, 200 W. Walker St. in Breckenridge, regarding a proposed change to the tax abatement agreement between Stephens County and NextEra Energy, the company building a wind turbine farm in the southeastern portion of the county.

County Judge Michael Roach said the proposed amendment is regarding changes to the agreement to install lights on the wind turbines that turn off when not in use, as well as a change to the location of one of the turbine locations. Roach said he hasn’t seen the proposed changes in writing yet, but that based on conversations, he understands that one of the wind turbines needs to be located in a different place than was originally agreed on and that new location is closer to a county road than the agreement allows.

Additionally, the original agreement between NextEra and Stephens County requires the wind turbine company to install an Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS) at the site of the wind farm. The system will ensure that the lights on the wind turbines come on only when an airplane or other aircraft is in the area.

Roach said he and the commissioners will learn more about the proposed amendments in a special workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 21, when the commissioners will meet in executive session with their attorney for the wind farm project to discuss the changes NextEra is requesting. At this time, Roach said he does not support approval of the changes to the ADLS.

“The ADLS lighting was one of the reasons why I supported the project,” he said. “…I felt that it was going to be built anyway, given the federal subsidies … we were able to get some concessions to the abatement. The guarantee and the ADLS lighting system were the two biggest things and my reasons for supporting it on top of the financial risk that we would be looking at.

“The ADLS lighting … complies with the night skies initiative,” Roach said. “It’s one of the reasons that Texas Parks and Wildlife, that was one of their asks, for the ADLS system, where you don’t have the incessant blinking lights in the new state park, and that was what was represented to them that was going to be there. So I just don’t support it for those reasons.”

The proposed amendments will be posted publicly before the public hearing, once the commissioners receive the official proposal, Roach said.

The Commissioners Court will consider and act upon the proposed amendments to the Tax Abatement Agreement in accordance with applicable law, including Texas Tax Code Chapter 312, which governs property tax abatements, according to the public hearing notice.

The public hearing on Feb. 10 will be open to the public, and anyone will be allowed to speak on the topic. If you are unable to attend but wish to submit comments, you may do so by mailing or delivering written comments to the Stephens County Judge’s Office at 200 W. Walker St. Ste. 115, Breckenridge, TX 76424 prior to the date of the hearing.

For more information, call the Stephens County Judge’s office at 254-559-2371.

 

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