Parlier OKs solar feasibility study on city land

PARLIER – Although it took a few tries to get in front of the council, a developer has been given the go-ahead to study the feasibility of putting a community solar project on 60 acres of city-owned land. 

In a 3-0 vote at a special meeting July 3, the Parlier City Council approved a site control and access agreement with Dennis Balakian for the property adjacent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, located southeast of Manning and Bethel Avenue. The agreement gives Balakian six months to conduct the feasibility study and bring its findings to the council for any further decisions. 

“We’re asking the council to approve this agreement to allow the Balakian family — the developers here — to continue discovery,” said Jessica Ritter, a government relations specialist with engineering and construction program management firm SitelogIQ. “It’s a discovery phase. It’s going to be preliminary engineering, maybe some soil testing, all of the stuff that happens pre-development.” 

Balakian and SitelogIQ, which helps build solar projects in the area, hope that the study will confirm their belief that the land is the perfect place to build a community solar project.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a community solar project is something that allows energy customers to subscribe to a portion of the energy generated by a solar array. With that subscription, the customer can receive a credit, or discount, on their electric bills for a portion of the electricity generated by the community solar system. 

With something like this in Parlier, residents, commercial businesses and even the city government would benefit from the electricity bill reductions. 

Council members brought up multiple questions and concerns regarding the possibility of putting a solar array on 60 acres of city-owned property. However, Parlier Mayor Alma Beltran stressed that the site access agreement was only allowing the developers to be on the property to conduct their feasibility study. 

“This is just to see if it’s feasible to do this project,” Beltran said. “Until the study is done … then it will be up to this council to decide if we’re moving forward in that direction.” 

Tax credit urgency 

Ritter and Balakian previously presented to the council on June 18 to introduce the potential solar project and ask for site access. At that meeting, they said they had been in communication with city staff about site access but had not been able to get on a council agenda, and an important deadline was fast approaching. 

July 4 was the last day that developers could “safe harbor” materials for a potential project and still receive clean energy tax incentives provided through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Ritter said on June 18. Incentives provided by the IRA were rescinded under 2025’s House Resolution 1, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” 

HR 1 set new deadlines for when construction on energy projects had to be completed in order for them to receive tax credits. However, certain projects that could prove by July 4 they were still in development and moving forward or had started construction will still be eligible for the Investment Tax Credit, according to reports on the impacts of HR 1.

“Without that safe harboring, the Balakian family may not find financial investors that want to actually fund this type of project, and that’s a big deal,” Ritter said on June 18.

Although the site access agreement does not allow for construction to start on the project, Ritter said the site access agreement and start of the feasibility study will be enough for the Balakian family to hold on to the tax credit eligibility.

Council members said at the June 18 meeting that they wanted more information about the project. The city worked with the developers to schedule a special meeting for June 26 so the project could be discussed more, but only Mayor pro tem Sabrina Rodriguez and Beltran showed up. Another special meeting was scheduled for July 3, right up against the deadline and ahead of the holiday weekend.

At the council’s regular meeting on July 2, Ritter and Balakian spoke during public comment to urge council members to attend so there would be a quorum and they could get approval to access the site. 

Rodriguez and Councilmember Diego Garza were absent from the special meeting.