Title
Approving a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Second Amendment of the Amended and Restated Non-Annexation Development Agreement by and between the City of Pflugerville and East Blackland Solar Project 1 LLC .
Summary
The Pflugerville Solar Farm is proposed in the far eastern portion of the Pflugerville extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) in the vicinity of Manda Carlson Road and Sandeen Road. In December 2018, the Pflugerville City Council approved Resolution 1672-18-12-18-0512 authorizing the First Amendment of the Amended and Restated Non-Annexation Development Agreement which provided for the extension of deadlines. No additional consideration has been granted to this project. The resultant deadlines were to commence construction by December 31, 2019, and complete the project by December 31, 2020. Attached, please find a letter denoting the level of compliance with commencement of construction that was provided to the City late last year. Staff reviewed, and considered it to be sufficient, but the completion of the project by the end of 2020 is still required to maintain the non-annexation agreement.
Staff has continued to be in communication with the project team, Recurrent Energy. Recurrent notified the City this spring of their inability to complete the project by the end of 2020 as noted in their attached letter dated March 9th and requests to extend the completion deadline by one year to December 31, 2021. A request to extend the deadline was considered on May 12, 2020 and no action was taken. Since, as noted in the various attachments, the construction of the project has begun having acquired a power purchase agreement with Austin Energy.
A new provision has been incorporated into the Agreement regarding plans for Decommissioning of the site. Section 3 provides that within a year of the Final Project Completion, the Landowner shall develop an initial plan for the decommissioning and restoration of the site for the City's approval. At least 90 days prior to the decommissioning of the solar electricity generation facility, the Landowner will provide a final decommissioning and restoration plan for City approval that is consistent with the initial plan as well as a petition for annexation of the property assuming contiguousness to the City Limits.
Recurrent Energy has also established a project website: https://recurrentenergy.com/pflugerville-solar-project/.
Prior City Council Action
December 18, 2018 - City Council approved Resolution 1672-18-12-18-0512 authorizing the First Amendment of the Amended and Restated Non-Annexation Development Agreement.
Deadline for City Council Action
There is no deadline for approval of this item.
Funding Expected: Revenue __ Expenditure __ N/A _x_
Budgeted Item: Yes __ No _x_ N/A __
Amount: ________
1295 Form Required? Yes __ No _x_
Legal Review Required: N/A __ Required _x_ Date Completed: November 3, 2020
Supporting documents attached:
Cover Letter regarding request
Resolution
Exhibit A
Pflugerville Solar Project Overview
Pflugerville Sun Newsletter
Progress Photos
Recommended Action
Approve the Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Second Amendment of the Amended and Restated Non-Annexation Development Agreement by and between the City of Pflugerville and East Blackland Solar Project 1 LLC .