Graphic shows the footprint of the huge Sloughhouse Solar Facility on Dillard Road. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the application on Jan. 11. Photo courtesy Sacramento County

SLOUGHHOUSE, CA (MPG) - Despite a local recommendation to reject the application, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Jan. 9 to approve the huge Sloughhouse Solar Facility on Dillard Road.

Supervisor Pat Hume, who represents Wilton and Sloughhouse, made the motion to approve the project even though he attended the Aug. 23 meeting of the Cosumnes Community Planning Advisory Council (CCPAC). That’s when the council members voted 5:1 deny the application because “placing an industrial site in rural farmland just doesn’t fit” and  “doesn’t reflect the values of the community,” according to the motion.

Supervisor Pat Hume, who represents Sloughhouse and Wilton, explains why he supports the project although a Wilton and Rancho Murieta planning group had recommended its rejection. Photo by Gail Bullen

Board discussion

Thirteen attendees made public comments at the board meeting, with 11 supporting the facility and two neighbors objecting.  Hume spoke first, saying conversations had been going on for months. He said his head was “literally swirling” because he had been talking to neighbors, the applicants and other interested parties up until he walked into the building. After he and Supervisor Rich Desmond received assurances that the applicant was still working with the two unhappy neighbors, Hume explained some of his reasoning for approving the project.

“If we are going to walk the walk relative to our own climate plans relative to the carbon neutrality goals of our energy providing partners, these types of project are highly critical,” Hume said.

On the other hand,  because large swaths of  agricultural and undeveloped lands lie within District 5, “I am very mindful of the fact that this is a conversion of use within an agricultural use although it is permitted,” he said.

Hume also said the applicant also had gone above and beyond what was required, which included seeking approval of an alternative (that dramatically reduces grading and restores a grassy surface.) Saying that the applicant had a vested interest in being good actor, Hume made the motion to approve the application.

Supervisor Phil Serna said he was seconding the motion because of the prior comments about the need for the project and because of the applicant’s efforts to mitigate the impacts.  “I always make a distinction between half-baked application and those that are very mature,” he said.

Chairman Patrick Kennedy and Supervisor echoed the same sentiments before the unanimous vote. Frost, who represents Rancho Murieta didn’t comment.

The applicant is Sloughhouse Solar, LLC, which is a subsidiary of D.E Shaw Renewable Investments in New York. Local consulting Jim Gillum has  represented the applicant in its dealings with the county and with the neighbors since it was first presented to the CCPAC in September of 2022.

The New York-based firm is also proposing the huge Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Rancho on Scott Road at the Barton Ranch north of Rancho Murieta. It would be four times the size of the Sloughhouse facility. That application is still pending. D.E. Shaw also operates the Rancho Seco Solar Power Facility.

Sloughhouse Solar will be constructing and operating a 50-megawatt solar facility on 381 acres on property owned by the trust for the Wanless Ranch. Located at Dillard and Meiss Roads, it would produce enough power for 12,000 homes. It would be developed with solar panel arrays and ancillary facilities, energy storage facilities, an electrical substation, internal dirt roads, and distribution lines connecting to the SMUD power grid. The connection will be at a Wilton substation that also serves the community.

The new solar facility will avoid prime agricultural lands and will be grazed with sheep to reduce the fire danger, according to the county planning report.  The perimeter also will be landscaped with native plants.

The Sloughhouse Solar Facility will be constructed adjacent to the existing R.E. Dillard Road Solar Facility, which has a different owner.

Audience comments

Fish farmer Michael Passmore, who lives across Meiss Road from the project, was adamantly opposed to the application at prior meetings. He told the supervisors he still wasn’t excited about it being dropped into his agricultural community but still recommended it’s approval “due to maintaining a true and real legitimate agricultural component to this project.

Fish farmer Michael Passmore explains his change of heart about the project. He opposed it last summer. Photo by Gail Bullen

“I think it represents a blue ribbon plan and is something that SMUD , the county and our community can hang its hat on as a model for future solar projects,” Passmore said.

Sod farm Dave Utterback said he wasn’t against the project but he believes the applicant’s mitigations aren’t enough. He said drainage caused by subtropical rainstorm would still flood his fields and has asked for a retention pond. Gillum told the supervisors they will return the topsoil above Utterback’s land so it can be reseeded “so it is largely the same kind of cover that it is there today…We are adding at 1.1 acre feet to the storage of the flood plain.”

Gillum said at a CCPAC meeting that the applicant wouldn’t build a retention pond.

Rob Grossglauser said the project would ruin the view from his home on Simpson Ranch Road.  “There is zero mitigation in the plan for my property….If a continuance isn’t amenable, please change the findings to note that someone will be damaged.”

Robert Thornton, an attorney for the applicant, told the supervisors that  California Court of Appeals has ruled that aesthetic view requirements of the California Environment Quality Act (CEQA) don’t apply to private views. Gillum said they were continuing to work with Grossglauser and hope to reach an agreement to place a landscaping screen on his property.

Rancher Stan Vleck spoke about the impact on agriculture. “There is actually a set aside requirement for mitigation on this project that actually stays as agriculture in perpetuity,” he said. “We are doing that in our operation for this project.”

Stan Van Vleck explains that the solar project is required to have a set aside that stays in agriculture in perpetuity. The mitigating property is on his ranch across from Rancho Murieta. Photo by Gail Bullen

Van Vleck owns the Van Vleck Ranch across Jackson Highway from Rancho Murieta South. He said the Sloughhouse Solar mitigation was an important piece of keeping the ranch going in perpetuity. “I’m please to say that we are 80% of the way and have already preserved over 3,500 acres,” he said.