Grant County Commissioners open to revisiting solar ordinance, possibly expaning setback requirements

The current ordinance in Grant County requires a minimum 300-foot setback from any non-participating dwelling and a minimum 50-foot setback from any non-participating owner’s property line. The commissioners have pointed out that those setbacks are more restrictive than those required by the state and are also more restrictive than the average setbacks in other counties in Indiana.

Despite that, many community members have voiced their feelings that it does not do enough to protect them and their land and have asked for stricter setbacks.

Draft 7, the draft of a solar ordinance that the Area Plan Commission (APC) had recommended to the commissioners, would have included a 1,320-foot setback from non-participating dwellings and a 300-foot setback from any non-participating owner’s property line.

In the meeting of the commissioners last week, one of the topics of conversation during the public comment section was the solar ordinances in the nearby Madison and Delaware counties, which include 450- and 500-foot setbacks.

The Chronicle-Tribune spoke to each of the county commissioners to ask if they would be open to amending Grant County’s solar ordinance to be more similar to those distances.

“I would consider that,” said Commissioner Steve Wright. Wright shared how he met with a group of young farmers and people who are going to be boxed in on three sides by commercial solar farms and that hearing them share about the way the current ordinance will impact them personally has given him a new perspective on the issue.

“Am I taking a look at my position right now? I really have,” Wright said. “You know, it’s one of those things, is there some things in the ordinance that could possibly be changed? I’d say there are.”

Wright clarified that he is not open to returning to the 1,320-foot setbacks from Draft 7, but that he did read through the Madison County solar ordinance to get more information about how it was structured.

“We can do that. We can talk about some other number,” said Commissioner Mark Bardsley. “I’ve had members of the community that said, ‘Would you consider going up to 400 feet or to 500 feet to protect us a little bit more?’ That’s worth a discussion, and there’s no way that I would say no to folks discussing that.”

Commissioner Ron Stewart, who now also serves as the president for the commissioners, was not in office when the ordinance was passed originally but has said that he is “on the side of the anti-solar people” and goes back and forth.

“Yes, I’m very much open to opening up the ordinance again and looking at those setbacks,” Stewart said. “...Since I was named president this year, I have talked to Steve and Mark on the phone separately to see what their thoughts were about possibly reopening that up and trying to get more in line with the counties that neighbor us, Madison County and Delaware County, and I think they’re open. It sounds like to me that they’re at least open to doing that.”

Stewart also emphasized that there are still a lot of steps that have to happen before solar panels start being installed in Grant County.

“There is still a lot of hoops to jump through before any of the solar panels go into the ground,” Stewart said. “If there’s zoning issues, then it has to go through the drainage board, it has to go through the BZA (Board of Zoning Appeals), it has to go through the APC to get approved. …There’s still a lot of hoops and a lot of red tape that they have to go through to get that accomplished. So we’re not close to that happening yet. And, you know, we’re still talking about some different things. …I think people are under the impression that this is going to happen in the next couple of months, but there’s still a lot of things that have to happen before solar fields go in.”