Greater Hume Shire councillors have been cautioned against placing an early hurdle in front of a proposed $130 million solar farm near Jindera.
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Solar farm proponents, Green Switch Australia, has approached the council for land owner consent to use part of Ortlipp Road to install a connector cable from the solar farm to the nearby sub-station.
The step needs to be completed before a development application can be submitted for the project which is classified as "state significant" and will ultimately be determined by the NSW Independent Planning Commission or delegate of the planning minister.
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Greater Hume environment and planning director Colin Kane has recommended based on legal advice sought that the consent be granted when council meets in Culcairn on Wednesday night.
"Given the amount of community interest to the proposed development it is considered appropriate that council determines this request," Mr Kane said.
"Perusal of the provided (legal) advice reveals that case law indicates that it would be an improper use of its power for a council to fail to provide owners consent to lodging a development application in order to frustrate the process of an adjoining landowner obtaining an approval.
"Failure to provide the requested owners consent could result in council becoming involved in legal action where there is every likelihood that (the Land and Environment Court) would provide owners consent to lodging the application."
Mr Kane said councillors still had a role to play in the process.
"Councillors still have the ability to choose to support or not support the proposed development as part of the subsequent development assessment process undertaken by the department of planning and environment," he said.
Greater Hume owns Ortlipp Road under which Green Switch Australia wants to run the cable connecting up to TransGrid's Jindera sub-station.
The 130 megawatt solar farm would occupy around 519 hectares of rural land with proposed infrastructure including panels, trackers, modules, invertors, a sub-station, underground cabling, security fencing and battery storage.
The legal advice obtained by council came from Bradley Allen Love Lawyers for an undisclosed cost.
