Amendments to the Lincoln County Master Plan and the Lincoln County Public Lands Policy Act have been approved by the Board of County Commissioners.
During a meeting in April, County Planning Director Cory Lytle said, “What the amendments intend to do is alleviate some of the confusion that has existed in regards to the energy corridors.”
Two previous ordinances spell out a permitting process for those who may desire to put a corridor in of over 200KV. Lytle said, “It all goes back to a requirement in Assembly bill 239 from the 2013 state legislature making the counties do this.” It is also pursuant to NRS 278.150-170 and includes designation of above ground utility corridors, policy updates on energy development and other matters related thereto.
Counties were required to develop a plan for energy production and/or transmission of 200KV and above and amend the master plan to accommodate the maps.
Lytle explained his department “created a map that details our vision of where there might be power lines of that size coming through the county and also developed a permitting process that would help streamline basically the red tape of companies permitting these large utility projects.
Commissioners approved the amendment to what the legislation required.
Lytle said the amendment change “sets some guidelines for us and gives us a roadmap so to speak. If things change in five to ten years, we’ll just change with it, without having to spend a whole bunch of time on it.”
“However,” he added, “I don’t foresee our power district ever needing that, at least not in our lifetime. And there would be exceptions for a local power district. But we don’t assume Lincoln County Power District is going to build anything that size in the future.”
At present, the largest power line going through the county is the 500KV One Nevada line that is easily recognizable by the large towers.
Lytle said, “The County Planning Department does already require a special use permit anyway if some company or government agency did want to bring a 200KV line through a corridor in the county. We can then easily address the issue and the impacts and get the companies moving and permitted and be successful.”
He said currently there are no applications on file for anyone to build a power line of 200KV or above.
