LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — In the Dearborn County Planning Commission's first special meeting with a potential vote on the line, rules governing any potential new solar project, from home panels to large-scale utility solar arrays, were debated and refined.
The commission was tasked with overhauling the county's solar ordinances after people publicly protested a roughly 1,200-acre solar project from Linea Energy in January, leading to county commissioners establishing a one-year moratorium on solar construction in February.
Under the rules proposed Monday, the acre-cap on utility-scale arrays was adjusted to 1,200 acres, drawing concern from many anti-solar farm protestors in the crowd.
Commissioner Sabrina Carpenter suggested limiting solar farm acre capacity to hundreds of acres, around 500, compared to the 1,200 suggestion from Planning and Zoning Director Nicole Daily.
WATCH: We hear from Dearborn County residents at the latest solar zoning meeting
Commissioner Russell Beiersdorfer pushed back and suggested the 400- or 200-foot setbacks proposed in the new rules were excessive compared to the county's other setback rules.
Daily indicated the setbacks for the county's most restrictive industrial proposals, like manufacturing, landfills and even explosives manufacturing, topped out at 150 feet.
The Planning Commission recently scheduled one more special meeting to address the solar ordinance for Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.
Click here to see the full new rule proposals here.
