A proposed solar farm in Union Township will not be constructed for the present.
The Tamarack Solar Energy Center to be developed by Invenergy was in need of a variance of use for the project since it was zoned as agricultural land and such a use would not fit that requirement.
In the third special meeting on the issue Monday night, the Marshall County Board of Zoning Appeals voted against the variance 4-1, with Dave Hostetler the “no” vote.
Two previous meetings were to have a public hearing on the matter and allow input from citizens for and against the project. The Monday night meeting was for the members of the BZA to ask questions and representatives of Invenergy to present their arguments for the project.
Ethan Sternberg of Invenergy presented the Board with a number of changes the company had made to the project to take into account the input from the public at the previous two meetings.
The current timetable when a variance is issued is one year to obtain a building permit. Sternberg asked for an extension of that requirement to four years, stating there were many steps to the project — including three years to secure all the property leases, research, and obtaining approval of the Indiana Regulatory Commission — or to start the clock on that one year after they had obtained approval from the IRC.
The main questions from board members were about setbacks and buffer zones for the project to keep homes around the installation for safety and to preserve aesthetics in the project area.
There were also concerns about wildlife corridors and the effect on the habitat.
Also on the board’s mind were concerns about what would happen if the company sold the project to another entity after its construction.
Sternberg told BZA members that the same conditions — monetary and otherwise — is attached to the project and would legally apply to the buyer.
Decommissioning was also addressed with the company needing to file a bond with the county, along with whether or not the materials used in the project would be purchased from a company in the United States.
Sternberg told the BZA that the economic impact from taxes would be $13/acre for real property with the current assessment from the state of Indiana. The personal property taxes would be 5-10 percent of the project which is projected to be worth $250 million.
Jeff Gustafson, President of the BZA, said the the job of the board was to protect landowners, adding that he felt there was a conflict of interest, with a Commissioner having a stake in the project and a member of the Plan Commission being an employee of another renewable energy company.
He said that the change in members of each board would bring a change in the county’s willingness to approve the project and asked the company to remove their application and re-apply with the conditions they had presented to the Board on Monday.
“If we vote this down you would have to wait for a year to reapply and the lawsuits start,” said Gustafson.
The application was denied based on the project not meeting the criteria for such a variance of use.
