The City of Morris filed a lawsuit against Grundy County, a private landowner, and Gore Road Community Energy Initiative LLC early in September to prevent a project that was approved by the Grundy County Board back in June.

The County Board didn’t approve the plan unanimously, though, with one no vote and an abstention from Eric Rasmusson because the solar farm would go on land he’s farmed before.

The City of Morris opted not to comment since there’s now pending litigation, but they shared the reasons for their objection during the Tuesday, June 13, County Board meeting.

“We think that visibility and frontage has significant value to businesses,” Hoffman said. “If you look up and down I-80, you see lots of businesses with their signs on their buildings, and that visibility is an important marketing thing that we think is something to preserve.”

Rasmusson said he worked with Vincent Moschella from ECA Solar, the parent company of Gore Road Community Energy Initiative LLC, and he said the company has done everything they said they were going to do.

Moschella told the board that ECA remained interested in continuing conversations with the City of Morris if they’re interested. The solar project is already set as far south on the property as it can go, and Moschella said the northern 118 acres remain open without restriction.

ECA Solar issued a news release Monday condemning the City of Morris’s lawsuit as government overreach.

“This is reckless government overreach and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Todd Fryatt, founder and CEO of ECA Solar. “Morris residents are now paying for litigation to block a project on land the city doesn’t own, doesn’t govern, and Morris is spending taxpayer money to fight battles it has no legal right to wage.”

ECA Solar’s lawyer, Robert Middledton of ArentFox Schiff, said in the news release that Morris has already been ruled against in a similar case earlier this year by Illinois Circuit Court Judge Sheldon Sobel.