Political Notebook: Tucson-area solar plan draws fire from left

A proposed solar and battery complex southwest of Tucson is drawing opposition from Pima County’s top elected official, raising questions about how the region balances its need for renewable energy with the protection of rural communities, wildlife habitat and working landscapes. Supervisor Jen Allen, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, says she cannot support the project as currently proposed because its developer has not changed either the project’s footprint or its planned energy capacity despite repeated community objections.

The project is planned for about 5,554 acres roughly 25 miles southwest of Tucson, in the Three Points and Robles Junction area. Repsol, through its subsidiary CG Three Points, has proposed a 500 megawatt solar farm paired with a 250 megawatt battery storage facility. The development would also include a substation and would be built on state trust land. Applications filed with the Arizona State Land Department estimate the project would cost about $575 million and operate for 35 years.

In a statement published earlier this week in the Fence Post, a newsletter serving the area, Allen described her meeting with Repsol leadership and said the company had not responded to the scale of local concern with substantive changes. She wrote that several community gatherings had drawn more than 100 people, with residents making clear that they opposed the proposal. The company nevertheless plans to submit permit applications to Pima County early next year.

Allen is the first elected official identified as opposing the project. She is a Democrat, as are four of the five members of the Board of Supervisors, but her criticism centers on the project’s location and potential effects rather than on opposition to renewable energy generally. She wrote that expanding large scale renewable energy remains necessary, but argued that rural communities should not be required to absorb the environmental and social costs of projects designed to serve broader energy needs.

Much of the proposed site lies within the Pima County Conservation Lands System, and Allen said portions of the property received some of the system’s most vulnerable land classifications. She warned that construction could undermine years of work in the Altar Valley and the Brawley Wash. Ranchers, farmers and residents have worked with county, state and federal agencies to establish wildlife corridors, restore areas damaged in the past and limit invasive, fire prone weeds, while maintaining the region’s ranching and farming traditions.

Allen also pointed to risks involving invasive species and wildfire. Her concern is that clearing and industrializing a large area of desert could damage restoration efforts and alter the rural character of the surrounding communities. She urged utilities to focus more investment near the places where electricity demand is greatest, including urban and suburban industrial, commercial and residential areas, instead of placing major facilities in remote rural landscapes.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson based conservation organization, is also opposing the plan. Taylor McKinnon, the group’s Southwest director, said the location of solar development matters as much as the amount of renewable power produced. The organization argues that solar facilities should be placed on rooftops or land that has already been disturbed, rather than in what it describes as intact desert habitat. The group says the proposed project could threaten endangered species, conservation lands and nearby communities.

Opposition has also been organized through the Southern Arizona Open Space Alliance, which formed before the project received official notification. The group has held public meetings since early summer and is urging residents to petition the Board of Supervisors to reject the proposal. Its concerns include the effect of thousands of acres of panels on wildlife and the landscape, as well as the possibility that the development would permanently change the region’s rural identity.

The project’s formal review could take time after the company files its county application. Allen said the application may not appear on a public agenda for several additional months. Because Pima County already has land use regulations covering utility scale solar facilities, the project likely would not receive a full hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission. Instead, it would probably be handled as a Class II conditional use permit through a hearing administrator.

That process still allows public participation, but Allen said it provides a narrower public review because the initial hearing is conducted by one person rather than the full commission. The hearing administrator would make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which would ultimately vote on the project. Before the matter could reach a hearing administrator’s agenda, however, relevant county departments would have to review their portions of the proposal. Those meetings take place once a month, creating multiple steps for residents and officials to follow as the plan moves forward.