A solar farm that is currently set in Greenfield, approved a few years back by the Greenfield City Council.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — A third draft of the solar ordinance — one focusing on the smaller scales for solar — was discussed at the plan commission meeting Tuesday night with a third public hearing being scheduled for their February meeting.
A process that started back in August 2023 has involved two public hearings and staff addressing the concerns of community members who spoke at those hearings, not necessarily in opposition, but wanting more time to make sure that the ordinance wasn’t being rushed.
Planning department staff took the month of December to review the ordinance and community concerns that primarily focused on large scale and utility scale sizes for solar, and questions about drainage, roads, decommissioning and more.
“We realized there is still a lot of work to be done as far as a solar ordinance that addresses all of the issues related to large and utility scale solar, and we are chipping away at that ordinance,” Hollie Kinker, planning assistant said.
With that, Kinker presented a solar ordinance that would focus on the smaller-sized scales — micro, small and medium — since those sized scales are getting permitted under the Accessory and Structure Standards Use but don’t have any guidance on how to appropriately permit those and how taxpayers can properly put these on their homes.
There was also a building-integrated or solar-ready ordinance presented that deals with development moving forward, specifically warehouses and how can those buildings be built to where if a tenant wants to add solar to their roofing, they can.
Kinker said that the staff would like to see this required for larger buildings of 200,000 square feet or more, with 25% of the roofing being designed solar-ready.
Plan commission member and county commissioner Gary McDaniel noticed that both required and encouraged were mentioned when talking about the larger scale buildings.
“I don’t know if it needs to be required…,” McDaniel said. “We’ve gotta start somewhere and I just think encouraged would be a lot better than required.”
Renee Oldham, plan commission member, also said that while she thinks it’s a great first step, she’s not sure that requiring the 25% solar-ready roofing is something she felt comfortable with doing.
The sizes for micro, small and medium scale have not changed — micro scale being less than 200 square feet of panel area, small scale being 200 square feet up to 1,750 square feet of panel area and medium scale consisting of more than 1,750 square feet up to 43,560 square feet of panel area.
Ground mounted solar energy systems (SES) larger than the medium scale are not permitted in the county zoning jurisdiction.
Staff said they believe they may see these scales on farms, local businesses, schools and more.
Kinker said that landscaping requirements will remain, and that they also added language to the ordinance addressing stormwater drainage, erosion and sediment control. This would require each SES would go before the county surveyor and reviewed to make sure there aren’t concerns with drainage.
With the Land Use Matrix updated, it shows that medium scale SES would require a special use exception, which would be given by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).
Plan commission member Lacey Willard shared with Kinker before the meeting her questions in regards to helping prevent someone from having acre after acre of SES, as to which Kinker said at the meeting that having a permitted use from the BZA each time should prevent that from happening.
“That is the reason that these are going before the BZA,” Kinker said. “By design, you’re putting them in front of a board every time to make sure that we are vetting these projects one by one to ensure we are not just handing out a permit.”
With doubling checking language to make sure the ordinance says encouraged instead of required for solar-ready buildings, the plan commission board agreed to have the updated ordinance presented at their February meeting for a third public hearing.
Kinker said in an email sharing updates on the ordinance that “As with all public hearings, comment from residents is encouraged.” The next plan commission meeting is currently scheduled for Feb. 27.
