HUNTINGTON — Huntington County’s solar agenda was put on hold Monday during the Board of County Commissioners meeting after at least 150 people turned out for the discussion and hearing more than five people speak.

The Commissioner’s next steps include meeting with residents for a solution to their concerns.

“Nobody knew nothing about this since a month ago,” said Terry Stoffel, board of commissioners vice president after the meeting. He believes in people’s property rights, and how it’s going to affect the residents. “I’m here representing those people,” Stoffel said.

There’s already zoning in place, according to Tom Wall, president of the board.

“We’re having our attorney look it over to look at what our process is, and if our process is coming up with a list of things to send that back to the plan commission, then we will and put a moratorium on it, and if we put it out to vote ... as a question to the residents,” Wall said, adding later that no one seemed against solar but want their concerns resolved.

“We’ve got to consider what’s best for the whole (county),” added Commissioner Rob Miller.

One resident speaker who lives in the area and owns a business, not a farm, explained that people didn’t know about the ordinance. He doesn’t think his taxes should pay for something he has nothing to do with. The agriculture aspect to “solar farming” should be in an industrial commercial ordinance not a local one under the guise of agriculture, according to Huntington County resident Bob Bolin of Union Township.

Representing Geenex Solar LLC, Trena Roudebush, explained later in the meeting that solar panels are built tough like a car’s windshield in case of storm issues like hail, and the Union Township area has the existing infrastructure, landowners choosing to lease parts of their property and the business-community support of renewable energy.

“EDF Renewables is developing in Huntington County for three key reasons: first, available capacity on the existing transmission infrastructure; second, landowners who have chosen to lease portions of their land into an energy project; and, finally, the desire of businesses to locate near sources of renewable energy,” Roudebush said. “We look forward to continuing our work with neighbors and community leaders as we make a long-term investment in Huntington County.

“With our Paddlefish Solar Project, EDF Renewables committed to establish half-a-million-dollar fund that will issue individualized electricity credit to 49 adjacent neighbors of the project across Huntington and Wells over the first 15 years of project’s operations,” Roudebush said, adding that it’s in a county revitalization area, mostly in Wells County. Another project (Bowfin) under development is in Huntington County.

One farm of 2,000 acres is in a flood plain, explained its owners Justin and Laura Hosler of Union Township. They explained that they were approached about the venture and declined. When it rains even two inches, their land is underwater and questioned how that would impact solar energy and their farm. Laura added that the solar equipment goes 10 feet deep into the ground.

The organization reportedly has farms signed up totaling 3,600 acres and wants to get 5,000 acres for the project, Hosler said, which is a large amount of land and crosses over into Wells County.

Roudebush explained that Paddlefish will have about 1,700 acres within the fence; about 3,000 were part of lease agreements, which is typical.

Another comment that came up extended to the state level where legislation says farmers planting corn, wheat and soybeans pay less taxes on an assessed value per acre versus a higher tax valuation for a solar farm acre. Additionally, people are discouraged in using less fossil fuels and encouraged to use other forms of energy, for example, from solar and wind.

Issues residents want addressed are health concerns, noise pollution of humming panels, drainage or water displacement, setbacks from other’s property, traffic while installing, fire issues as to who would be responsible to pay to train firefighters to work a solar farm fire, cell phone disruption, farmers are making the commitment to have their land turned into a solar farm, solar farms draw lighting during storms, an abatement for the solar contractors for the equipment only, subcontractors bringing in employees without background checks, what is the alternative to renewable energy and residents who’ve relocated or retired to Huntington County because of the farm scenery.

Two solar farms originally filed for Huntington County abatement in December 2022, Paddlefish Solar of San Diego and Maple Solar of Charlotte, North Carolina. When approved they were to comply with site development factors, such as setbacks, land use, road maintenance and repair, drainage tile repair and decommissioned ordinances. Also, it included inflationary adjustment and additional payments to the county if the power generation estimates increase.
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