LISBON — The status of the Kensington Solar project in Columbiana County remains at a standstill, but with the company withdrawing its application with the Ohio Power Siting Board Thursday, wanting to possibly refile in the future.

Local governmental entities and the group opposed to the project want the case to move forward for a final decision one way or another, filing their own recent motions asking for reactivation of the case.

The case remains pending with the Ohio Power Siting Board, still stayed at the moment.

“The applicant has decided to withdraw the application for business reasons that include, but are not limited to, the legal uncertainty created by the board’s current application of the public interest criteria when evaluating certificate applications. The applicant withdraws the application without prejudice, reserving the right to submit a new application for the project in the future,” the document filed by an attorney for the company said.

The commissioners approved bans of large solar facilities and large wind farms in the unincorporated areas of all 18 townships in the county last year over several months and multiple public hearings. The ban, however, couldn’t stop the Kensington Solar project planned in Franklin Township since the application was filed before the law took effect. How that ban would affect a refiling of the application is unknown at this point.

The Kensington PV I, LLC project announced in 2021 was described as a proposal to construct a 135 megawatt solar-powered electric generation facility in Franklin Township, consisting of solar panel arrays and associated facilities occupying approximately 1,000 acres. In addition to the solar panel arrays, the facility would include electrical collection lines, inverters, access roads, perimeter fencing, and a substation.

In January, an administrative law judge for the Ohio Power Siting Board partially granted a request by Kensington Solar to suspend the procedural schedule and stay the proceedings, but ordered that the company must file a status update on the case within five months. A public hearing and adjudicatory hearing were both canceled. The company had cited pending Ohio Supreme Court decisions in two cases and a desire to talk more with the local community as reasons for the stay. Those talks didn’t happen.

In a status update filed on June 5, Kensington Solar’s attorney wrote, “Given the opposition expressed by the local governmental entities as to the stay, the resolutions previously passed opposing the project, and the request to intervene by the local opposition group opposing the project, Kensington has not progressed on discussions with interested stakeholders including discussions on a revised project layout (which was shared in 2023 with some of the local governmental entities). Kensington, as of the present date, does not foresee future discussions taking place with the local opposition group or the local governmental entities.”

On Monday, an attorney representing the opposition group Franklin Against Kensington Solar and the bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown filed a document requesting the stay be lifted, saying the pending project has “cast a pall over the citizens of Franklin Township.”

The document said citizens are delaying plans to improve or expand homes, replace aging equipment or expand family farms and businesses. Parishioners of St. John’s Catholic Church in Summitville had two building projects planned that have been delayed due to the uncertainty associated with the Kensington Solar project.

“Having the project’s pendency hanging over their heads is causing ongoing stress in the lives of the citizens who will be impacted by the facility. An extension of the stay would continue to keep a stranglehold on the lives and livelihoods of the citizens and businesses of Franklin Township,” the document said.

An attorney representing local government entities, including the Columbiana County Board of Commissioners, the Franklin Township Board of Trustees and the Columbiana County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors filed a new motion Thursday asking that the Ohio Power Siting Board deny Kensington Solar’s request to withdraw its application without prejudice and to restore the case to the active docket, set dates of a local hearing and evidentiary hearing or “in the alternative, require Kensington to dismiss its application with prejudice.”

“The siting board should not permit Kensington to withdraw its application without prejudice. To do so would leave the members and constituents of the local government entities without the answers that they desperately seek. For almost three years now they have lived with the uncertainty of whether Kensington’s project would ever be completed, and in what final form. They still do not know whether the siting board will allow the project to affect their environment, wildlife, local economy, property values, and enjoyment of property, or whether a resource rich, foreign company could disrupt their carefully chosen way of life,” the motion said.

When contacted about the latest news on the project, Commissioner Michael Halleck did not want to comment except to say “the attorneys are handling that.”

mgreier@mojonews.com