BZA solar farm decision will wait

BAINBRIDGE — The decision of the Putnam County Board of Zoning Appeals regarding a proposed solar farm in Russell Township will have to wait until at least September.

The special exception requested by petitioners Arevon Energy and developer Tenaska was tabled following a three-plus hour meeting Tuesday at the Bainbridge Community Center.

In its usual deliberate fashion, the five-member BZA listened to all points made by the petitioners and the public and asked some questions of its own before deciding it best to continue researching and return next month with more answers before making a final decision on the fate of Cold Spring Solar Farm.

Another special meeting was set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 12, also at the Bainbridge Community Center.

At the center of the matter are the four findings of fact the BZA must always consider in the case of special exceptions: 1) It must not be injurious to the health and safety of the public; 2) It must not affect the value of nearby properties, 3) It will be consistent with the character of the nearby area; and 4) The board may impose conditions.

A crowd of more than 60 people gathered for the meeting, with many from the public addressing the board with passionate pleas to deny the request, though several supporters also expressed their feelings on the matter.

The hearing opened with a 30-minute presentation from several officials representing Arevon and Tenaska in an attempt to bring a clearer picture of what the operation of a 1,400-acre, 200-megawatt solar farm will mean in Russell Township and Putnam County as a whole.

They explained that the solar panels will be mounted on trackers to follow the sun, with the main infrastructure of the operation being the rows of panels, along with a converter and a substation on the northern part of the land to connect it to a Duke trunk line in the area.

Their projections included a positive impact on drainage — considering that native grasses will be planted as opposed to row crops — no impact on communication, sound generated at 32 decibels for most area residences and no impact on telecommunications of any kind.

Tommy Hudzik, director of development for Arevon, also spoke of working with local fire and EMS officials — notably Russellville Fire Chief Darrick Wiatt — regarding an emergency action plan should any natural disaster cause an issue for the proposed devices.

Such matters were among the main things on the minds of citizens in attendance to express their concerns, with many wondering what would happen should there be a fire with any of the units, if there are concerns to drinking water and if the presence of the solar field would have any effect on wildlife.

Overall, though, many simply expressed their desire to not have their way of life altered by the presence of such technology in place of the fields of crops to which they are accustomed.

Mel Grimes noted that his family has owned the same farm in the immediate area for more than 100 years.

“It just rips my heart out to think they’d even consider something like this,” Grimes said. “I know there’s a place for it, but I wish the county would consider that it’s more than just my house. It’s my roots. It’s everything to me.”

Ken Carrington, who does not live in the immediate area but within a few miles and has long been active in Putnam County’s agricultural community, asked the board members if they would prefer traditional rural living with the changes of seasons and cycles of crops or to get up every day and see solar panels out their windows.

“I think that if you represent the entire county, if you’d ask a lot of the people, they’d prefer to see the change of the seasons,” Carrington said.

Several statements of support also came from audience members, including from some of the landowners who plan to lease to Arevon for the project.

Among these was Charles Leonard, who grew up on the family farm but no longer lives in the area. He noted that even as he was growing up, he watched technology change from horses to rudimentary machinery to modern tractors and the use of the land change, from subsistence farming to currently being cash rented for corn and soybean production.

He sees providing electricity as the next phase in the farm’s evolution.

“The use of that farm changes over time,” Leonard said. “The farm is changing, and this’ll let us keep it in the family for another 50 years.”

Following public comments, the BZA members also asked their own questions, some of them quite technical in nature.

With the meeting stretching beyond its third hour at this point, the decision was made for a number of questions to be asked, with the board continuing to send them to Arevon and Tenaska in the coming days.

In the end, board member Kevin Scobee made the motion to table the request until the Sept. 12 meeting, with Randy Bee seconding the motion.

Fellow members Lora Scott, Raymond McCloud and Ron Sutherlin joined them in unanimously tabling the matter.

In the meantime, members of the public were encouraged to submit their own questions as well as comments on either side of the argument to the Putnam County Building and Planning Office, 1 W. Washington St., Room 46, Greencastle, IN 46135.