The Shelby County Board of Commissioners extended the solar moratorium set to expire Jan. 31 during its Jan. 29 Monday morning meeting.
A moratorium is a temporary prohibition of an activity, according to the Oxford Dictionary. By placing a moratorium on incoming solar project applications in August, the county gave itself time to review and learn from the construction process of the approved solar project in the northeastern part of the county, which is underway.
“We are in the midst of constructing the first of these facilities in the northeastern part of the county,” Commissioner Jason Abel said. “We’ve already learned a tremendous amount through some of the challenges and pitfalls that have occurred just during the early part of construction. It would be foolish of us not to incorporate those lessons into a more well considered, well thought out ordinance.”
The board passed a resolution to extend the ordinance that implemented the moratorium (Ord. 2023-28) to give the county more time to learn as much as possible as the initial facility’s construction process continues.
It would also allow the county’s plan department time to revise the county’s solar ordinance to include what officials have learned so far.
“It would make sense to try to learn as much as possible throughout the construction process of this initial facility, apply the lessons that have been learned to future facilities that are operating under a more thoughtfully-crafted, more nuanced, and hopefully a model ordinance that we can share to other communities throughout the state of Indiana as, ‘This is what happens when a community works together to get it right on all fronts.’”
Commissioner Don Parker agreed.
“This would have to go through the Plan Commission,” he said. “We’re working on that. As far as the project that already began, we are not changing that in any way. That is set. We are just looking forward to the future with this new ordinance that we are working on.”
The moratorium will expire on July 31. The extension passed 2-1, with Commissioner Kevin Nigh voting against it.
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