(Wright County Commissioner Nadine Schoen standing at proposed site for a satellite ground station – credit Wright County)
The Wright County Board of Commissioners will meet later this week along with officials with the Wright County Attorney’s Office and possibly with township officials regarding a new technology front – “satellite ground stations.”
These facilities track satellites, communicate with spacecraft and process data between Earth and space. SpaceX and its subsidiary StarLink are currently in the process of locating eight satellite ground stations in the United States – four in Washington, one each in Wisconsin, California and Utah, and one here in Wright County, in Rockford Township.
Commissioner Nadine Schoen brought the item to the August 25th board meeting. She said that questions have been asked for months, but answers have been slow in coming – if at all…
“It has taken on its own history. It’s mounting. It’s kind of a snowball effect when people start finding out what is actually taking place and what rights are being taken away.”
Commissioner Kirby Moynagh questioned why such a project could be completed without any local oversight or buy-in, stating the Federal Communications Commission has given the project prior approval, thereby superseding local jurisdictions…
“They don’t require permits from the local government, the FCC says they can go in and do it and then they do it and nobody knows about it until after it’s installed.”
Commissioners are frustrated because of what appears to be a federally-approved project’s ability to sidestep local regulations. Officials say local zoning applications from lifelong Wright County residents require rigorous scrutiny, yet, it appears this project hasn’t been on the radar of any Minnesota regulatory authority until recently.
Earlier this month, Commissioner Schoen, along with representatives from the Association of Minnesota Counties and the Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance met with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, where concerns were raised as to how a private company could get the ability to place equipment in an agricultural zone without going through the county or township for permitting.
Wright County Attorney Brian Lutes briefly addressed the situation at the August 25th County Board meeting, saying that barring new legislation at the federal level, local jurisdictions are effectively powerless to stop it…
“I’ve looked into the issue and it’s a matter of federal pre-emption,” Lutes said. “There is a federal statute that pre-empts action on a county, local or state level. It’s very difficult from a legal perspective to get around that. We did address it at the workshop and our conclusion was that it was very unfair that our citizens don’t have any control over this, but given the pre-emption, there isn’t much we can do from a legal perspective.”
Commissioners agreed to further address the issue at a Committee of the Whole meeting later this week following a previously scheduled budgeting session.
(content: in part, courtesy Wright County)
