Rules return for a review

Jay County Plan Commission isn’t done with wind and solar farm rules quite yet.

The ordinances will return to plan commission for review at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Jay County Courthouse after Jay County Commissioners sent them back for further review.

Plan commission approved the updated wind farm ordinance and new solar ordinance in September after making several changes to the original proposal. Those changes followed a public comment session during which most residents pushed for more stringent rules.

The result was an ordinance that called for a wind turbine setback of 1,640 feet from residential dwellings for non-participating landowners. The original proposal had called for 1,500 feet, which was an increase from the current 1,000 feet.

After taking several months to review the proposed ordinance and gather more information, commissioners Chuck Huffman, Mike Leonhard and Chad Aker, who represents commissioners on the plan commission, took issue with the 1,640-foot setback. They suggested that it be scaled back to the original proposal of 1,500 feet.

Commissioners also asked the plan commission to take another look at its proposed ordinance regulating solar farms. The rules advanced in September called for such facilities to have a setback of 150 feet from property lines and access driveways to have a setback of 300 feet. Commissioners said those numbers are far too restrictive and suggested setbacks of 25 and 50 feet, respectively.

Thursday’s meeting will continue a process that has been ongoing since summer 2018 when commissioners, on the suggestion of plan commission, placed a three-year moratorium on new wind farms in the county. That decision came on the heels of vocal opposition from some residents to Scout Clean Energy’s Bitter Ridge Wind Farm, which is currently under construction.

A study committee made up of two plan commission members, a county commissioner, a Jay County Council member and wind farm opponents and proponents spent months reviewing the ordinance and also took on the task of creating a new ordinance to regulate solar farms. (There are currently no solar farms in Jay County, but Chicago-based sustainable energy firm Invenergy has purchased easements in Penn Township.)

Plan commission received the suggested ordinances in March, then made its own tweaks before initial approval in August. It made more changes following the public hearing in September before approving the ordinances and forwarding them to commissioners for their final approval.

The wind ordinance as approved by the plan commission in September would have:

•Increased setbacks for turbines to 1,640 feet from residential dwellings of non-participating landowners from the current 1,000 feet.

•Required obstacle collision avoidance system warning lights on all turbines. Such lights are off most of the time, only turning on when radar detects aircraft in the vicinity of the turbines.

•Increased the setback to 1.5 times the height of the turbine from the property line of non-participating landowners, up from the current 350 feet or 1.1 times the height of the turbine.

•Required that markers for underground transmission lines be made of metal or fiberglass and have a cement base.

The solar ordinance OK’d by plan commission in September called for setbacks of 150 feet from the property lines and homes of non-participating landowners, churches, schools, businesses or public buildings, areas zoned commercial or rural residential, the road right of way and any nature preserve, park or recreational use area; a setback of 300 feet for access driveways from the property line of any non-participating landowner; a requirement that panels be no taller than 20 feet; and a requirement that facilities be enclosed by a fence and that there be a 25-foot wide buffer that includes evergreen vegetation.

Plan commission will review both ordinances at its meeting Thursday and decide whether to follow the recommendations from commissioners. It can also make other changes or leave the ordinances intact. The group has until Feb. 23 — 90 days from the last action taken by commissioners — to take action on the ordinances and send them back for final approval.