Linn County, Iowa

ments become more solar-friendly by lowering the soft costs to solar development–basically stream- lining the permit review and application process,” Beck notes.“We received our Gold designation in 2017.There are only three SolSmart Gold commu- nities in the State of Iowa and we’re one of them. In order to do that,we needed to streamline our per- mitting process, inspections, and fees for consumer- scale solar installations.We amended a number of provisions in our zoning regulations.What was key to this effort was a solar group-buy program that the Public Health Department spearheaded.” Hodina explains that, hewing to one of Iowa’s Smart Planning Principles,which promotes col- laboration among governmental, community, and individual stakeholders, his Department partnered with the City of Cedar Rapids and the Midwest Re- newable EnergyAssociation to solicit solar install- ers, asking for a unit price for installed solar based on volume. “We got several bids from several qualified install- ers and we selected the one that we felt had the best price, and the best product and service,”Hodi- na relates.“In a three-month campaign,we held 23 community outreach events; we had seven media events with interviews in the paper and television, and we signed up over a hundred residents within that three-month period to install solar at this reduced price.”“Over the last two years, since Janu- ary of 2017, in large part because of the group-buy, there’s been a significant uptick in terms of solar permits that we’ve issued,”Beck adds. The mandate of the Environmental Health Divi- sion at Linn County’s Public Health Department is to maintain and administer the County’s air qual- ity control program under the federal Clean Air Act and the state’s implementation plan for clean air.Hodina believes that the 104 solar systems installed under the group-buy plan have had a measurable effect on the quality of Linn County’s air -and he has the numbers to prove it.“We used EPAmethodologies to know that we reduced CO2 emissions, annually, by 740 tons; 1,400 pounds of sulphur dioxide emissions; and some other pollut- ants as offsets based on emissions from our power grid.We also fed 607 kilowatts back into the system. We were recognized last summer by the National Association of City and County Health Officials for this approach as a promising practice.” Hodina continues: “Air quality is a very important program for our community and for sustainabil- ity.We are in attainment for all of the ambient air quality standards established by the EPA, and