Responsible Solar
for Montezuma County
Responsible Solar
For Montezuma County
Canyonland/Coyote Gulch Solar
Coyote Gulch Solar was renamed Canyonland Solar LLC in 2024. As Coyote Gulch Solar it was first proposed to the Board of County Commissioners in November 2021. The design has changed many times but it is on the same land with the same developer holding the agreements with landowners. There are 4487.87 acres of land under contract to the developer.
Recent events
A public hearing was held when a proposal was presented to the county Planning and Zoning Board in May 2025 for a 140 MWac, 960 acre, 300,000 solar panel design for a utility scale facility. (Incidentally, developers are now more likely to speak in terms of modules than number of solar panels. The numbers look smaller.) The board voted unanimously to deny the project. The project was submitted just before a moratorium was placed on renewable energy development. The six-month moratorium began in April 2025 and ended in October while revisions to the Land Use Code were crafted. In November 2025, the Board of County Commissioners added a section to the county Land Use Code that covers renewable energy development, including solar energy. See Resolution 29-2025.
What's next
A new design is likely; one that will comply with the guidelines in the revised Land Use Code. Any other statements here would be pure conjecture. Stay tuned for further developments.
Observations
Size of a project is important. Any project design covering about a thousand acres brings up the question of why are so many extra acres under contract. If a proposal were to be approved as a smaller project, what prevents future expansion requests that would cover the full acreage under agreement with landowners. That is a big ask for a relatively small portion of land within the county. Worst case scenario: imagine two utility scale solar facilities in Montezuma County the size of the Sunbear Solar Project.
Learning from experience
Experience tells us that building a utility scale solar project is not just a matter of a quick approval or saying the county can't turn down the proposal because it will always need the tax revenue generated.
Planning ahead
Don't ignore the big picture. Is it worth pitting families against each other.
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Remember that about 72.5% of our county is covered by federal, state, or sovereign land. Federal lands include San Juan National Forest, BLM, a National Park, and National Monuments. Privately owned land is a small part of our county at 27.5% and a relatively small property tax base of the 1,207,273 total acres in the county. 92,081 Acres are cropland. 544,907 Acres are pastureland. 50,165 Acres are irrigated land. Those figures are found at region9edd.org/uploads/Montezuma_2021_CEDS.pdf Reducing the production of food will not feed us in the future. Adding a utility scale solar facility on 27.5% of the land will mean that it can be seen from just about anywhere in the county from any of the numerous elevated positions.
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Remember a developer has the right to contest the amount or validity of a tax or assessment. Once a project is built, they can come back to county officials and contest the amounts they pay.
Another important point to remember is that tax income so often referred to as a huge benefit doesn't start until there's a product produced. We live with construction and testing, road use and deterioration, etc, however many months that takes, for an extended period of time before seeing any tax benefit anywhere in the county.
And we come to the last question. Can you find out if insurance issues exist because you live next door to a utility-scale solar facility? The pace of solar development during the past 5 years has far outpaced the rate at which any impacts or benefits can be studied, mitigation strategies developed, or regulatory requirements accurately developed. It's all reactive - never proactive.
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Responsible Solar
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