Madison County waives mineral rights to solar energy site in Collinsville Township
by Randy Pierce • Action to waive Madison County’s mineral rights at a site where the development of a solar energy project has been approved was authorized by members of its elected board recently.
As brought forward by County Board Chairman Chris Slusser, a resolution that was passed removes the future potential for anything underground at the location in question to be mined by the government body.
Slusser explained that the user of the property, a tract south of Interstate 55, east of Pleasant Ridge Road in Collinsville Township, requested the county waive any such future authority to take materials from underground there.
Owned by Scott and Jacob Frey, the property being addressed north of 3rd Street was where a solar energy project development was approved by the county board in April of last year, that decision being a reversal of one determined by a majority vote that occurred two months prior.
Originally, a limited liability company named Armoracia Solar had been turned down by the county zoning board of appeals, the county board building and zoning committee and the full board, by a margin of 20-4, prior to the April vote to approve it based upon the stipulations regarding the applicant’s willingness to meet additional requirements over what had been proposed initially.
County Board members Paul Nicolussi and Linda Wolfe of Collinsville, Chris Guy of Maryville and Frank Dickerson of Worden remained steadfast in their opposition to the project when the approval vote came forward.
When presenting the information about the waiving of the mineral rights, Slusser noted the property was on top of a former mine where all the coal had been removed.
Decades ago, he added, “What they would do a lot of times, these coal companies would just, to avoid paying property tax, they would surrender their coal mineral rights back to the county.”
With the county holding those rights, Slusser stated, “We’re not going to go mining anyway because there’s no coal in there and we have no desire to mine it if there was.”
