The County Plan Commission passed an updated version of the unified development ordinance regarding commercial solar energy systems earlier this week.
With a 6-1 vote, the commission voted in favor of it on Tuesday. Terry Smith voted against it.
The vote came after several months of reviewing the ordinance. It now goes to the County Commissioners, who are expected to have it on the agenda at the Nov. 4 meeting.
Planning Director Desiree Calderella reviewed the changes made following last month’s meeting, which were based on conversations from that meeting.
The biggest changes from the previous version was the removal of a special exception process and the addition of a solar overlay process. Language was added to help the Plan Commission and Commissioners decide on when rezone to an overlay district.
The changes made from the September meeting prompted Jared Wren, senior manager of development at Hecate Energy to pose a series of questions regarding the impact it will leave on companies’ ability to develop in Shelby County.
He questioned what considered the Plan Commission took into account on the economic benefits and potential loss revenue of a more restrictive ordinance, and if the commissioners was concerned about implementing a spot zoning approval process, which he suggested setting precedence in “choosing winners and losers.”
Kyle Barlow, a County Council member who spoke as a resident immediately following Wren, criticized those questions.
“Everything he just said, it’s our choice, it’s our county,” he said. “We can decide what we want.”
Commission member Megan Hart read a statement during discussion before the vote, expressing the importance of using caution.
Shelby County has 199,029 acres of tillable land per the 2022 census of agriculture, she said.
“That number will never increase,” she said. “There will always be houses that need to be built, existing businesses that need to expand and new businesses that bring jobs and value to the communities of Shelby County. We as a Plan Commission must be responsible when we look at the ordinance for commercial solar energy systems and not forget how massive these projects are. There are no other types of development that Shelby County has seen that completely change the land forever at this scale.”
She proposed two revisions to the ordinance that was before the commission on Tuesday, both of which were added and approved.
The full ordinance can be found on the county website at https://www.in.gov/counties/shelby/plan-commission/.
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