By John Estridge
At the Franklin County Commissioners’ Tuesday, January 26, meeting, Franklin County Attorney Grant Reeves said there is much misinformation and rumor concerning the proposed zoning change regarding solar power farms in Franklin County.
Thus, he wrote a one-page memo on the subject. There is a public hearing about the proposed changes to the zoning ordinance scheduled for 7 p.m., Wednesday, February 10, before the Franklin County Area Plan Commission (APC). The meeting can be Zoomed as seating within the meeting room will be limited, and there is expected to be a large crowd.
According to the memo, the proposals before the APC:
- If a property is already zoned Industrial-1 (I-1) or Industrial-2 (I-2), a commercial project would still require approval of a conditional use by the APC and Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) following public hearings. These approvals are not automatic, must meet the conditions in the ordinance at a minimum, and approval is still discretionary. The commissioners would not have to be involved in this process,
- If a property is zoned anything else, including Agriculture-1 (A-1) or Agriculture-2 (A-2), it would first have to rezoned to Agriculture-Alternative Energy System (A-AES), I-1 or I-2. The rezoning would go through the APC and the final approval of the commissioners. Only if that rezoning occurred, the project could then go through the conditional use steps above, requiring APC and BZA public hearings. The commissioners would be involved in the rezone but not in the conditional use.
In the late summer of 2020, the commissioners became aware of a large solar project in the works for the northeastern and eastern part of the county, notably Bath and Springfield townships. And the commissioners knew the county did not have anything in the county’s zoning ordinance to deal with alternative energy systems such as solar and wind.
“The county was concerned that this would leave the situation in turmoil and confusion if that project applied and (that) gave the county an incentive to push to get something on the books,” Grant wrote in his memo. “This led to a sense of some urgency.”
Former APC member Mary Rodenhuis, the county extension agent at that time, sent out zoning ordinances currently on the books in other counties. Also, it was determined the counties cannot ban this type of alternative energy initiatives due to Indiana statute, according to the memo.
A committee was formed to look at the other counties’ ordinances and the state’s law concerning alternative energy systems. The committee was made up of BZA member David Mannix, Reeves and APC and BZA attorney Tammy Davis. Reeves has a unique insight to this situation as he was the Rush County APC and BZA attorney during a request by a wind energy company, has represented adjoining neighbors to a proposed alternative energy system proposal and represented a utility company in another instance regarding alternative energy sources, he said at the January 26, commissioners’ meeting.
Currently, Reeves does not represent anyone involved in the proposed solar energy farm except Franklin County, commissioners said at their January 26 meeting.
“The draft proposal started largely from the Rush County Ordinance that Rush County had put in place after their (sic) experiences with possible commercial wind farms, but was revised considerably to attempt to address other potential problems,” Reeves wrote in the memo.
He said utility companies did not have any input in the writing of the proposed ordinance other than comments a representative of a solar energy company made at public meetings regarding the subject.
The committee presented its proposed ordinance at an APC public meeting. This, in turn, was debated in a subsequent public hearing held in November 2020.
As a result of that hearing, a number of minor changes were made to the proposed ordinance. However, there was also a major change initiated by APC member Ed Derickson. Derickson’s proposal, which was passed by a narrow margin, took out A-2, leaving only I-1 and I-2.
This would mean there would have to be a rezoning to I-1 or I-2 if it is proposed in A-1 or A-2. Rezones are permanent and go with the land. Thus, other unrelated industrial projects could replace the AES in the future. This, according to the memo, concerned commissioners.
Thus, the commissioners requested the rezone be to A-AES. This would limit the rezone to just alternative energy systems and not some other future industrial application. Someone would have to apply for the rezone. Reeves said there are no plans to rezone any land A-AES without an application.
