MUNCIE, — Muncie City Council on Monday torpedoed plans to place a solar field atop the contaminated former site of a General Motors transmission plant at 1200 W. Eighth St.
Mayor Dan Ridenour had worked for months with GM Development and Performances Services on plans build a solar array atop concrete on the 53-acre site. The solar panels would have delivered electricity to AEP and revenue for the city's general fund. An estimated $500,000 would have been delivered to the city coffers annually over the estimated life of the project. Cost to the city was estimated at $11.7 million.
Council members and other city officials, along with developers, recently met with residents of the Avondale-Thomas Park neighborhood to hear explanations of the project and listen to neighborhood reactions to this effort to develop something on the ground that has been empty since the factory was razed by 2008.
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All four Democratic city council members along with Republican Troy Ingram voted down the solar field proposal.
"I was very surprised at what appeared to be a political vote to stop a project for a neighborhood that is hurting," Ridenour said after the vote.
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