ANDERSON — The developers of the proposed Lone Oak solar energy facility in northern Madison County have had their appeal to a state agency continued for two months.
Invenergy has filed a complaint with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to take one of two steps to allow for future construction. The $110 million project will produce 120 megawatts of electricity on 800 acres.
The company is asking the IURC to rule that the county’s solar ordinance is unreasonable or void. If that action is not approved, the company wants the state agency to provide an additional three years to complete the project.
The hearing has been continued to May 8.
Several local residents have filed a petition with the IURC to intervene based on the project’s potential impact on property values.
Invenergy has filed a motion to deny the request of the local property owners to intervene in the case.
Attorneys representing Madison County have filed an objection to pre-filed testimony on behalf of Invenergy’s request before the IURC.
Invenergy wants to provide information that was not presented during the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals decision pertaining to supply chain issues.
The county’s position is that only evidence presented during the public hearing should be considered by the IURC.
The company obtained a special use from the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals in 2019, with construction to be completed by Dec. 31, 2023.
A remonstrators’ appeal in Madison County was denied by Madison Circuit Court Division 6 Judge Mark Dudley in 2021.
Subsequently, the Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer of the case in 2021, two years after the original special use was granted for the facility.
The BZA denied a request from Invenergy last year for an additional two years to complete the project.
Invenergy filed a civil lawsuit against the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals in Grant County. That case is pending the decision by the IURC.
Company officials maintain in their IURC filing that the litigation brought by the remonstrators and supply chain issues during the pandemic made it impossible to finish the project by the end of this year.
“The BZA unreasonably denied this request for extension of the commercial operating date of 2025,” the IURC complaint states.
Madison County in November asked the IURC to dismiss the complaint filed by Invenergy.
The county’s dismissal motion includes an assertion that Lone Oak asked the IURC to decline jurisdiction over the project in exchange for the county’s land use regulations and decision making.
Lone Oak agreed to comply with the local ordinances, the county states.
“Lone Oak did not qualify its statements by saying it would be subject to local land use ordinances only if it received favorable rulings,” the motion to dismiss reads.
In a response to the motion to dismiss, Invenergy said it is not asking to be exempt from local zoning regulations.
“That is a straw man erected by the county to sidestep the more limited issue of its arbitrary and capricious refusal to extend its own special use approval in the face of clear justification,” the filing reads.
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