Why sign this petition?

 

As a potential signer of this petition, we want you to be educated on the situation. All the facts that I contain in this letter can be verified by a quick look at the “Commercial Solar Overlay” ordinance in section 3 of the Noble County Unified Development Ordinance available online or at the Noble County Plan Commission Office in Albion.

In 2021 industrial solar companies began approaching farmers in Noble County offering as much as $1000 per acre for the development of a large-scale solar facility. Most farmers refused, due to the fact that the contracts are 30 years with the option for the solar company to extend the time to 40. At this time, the Noble County commissioners decided to add an overlay zone into our County Ordinance to allow for this development. County Commissioners decided to allow for 4,700 acres to be allowed in the development of this facility. To put this in perspective, 4,700 acres is equal to 7.34 sq miles. Bigger than the city of Kendallville which sits at 6.26 sq. miles, or bigger than the towns of Albion, Avilla, Rome City, Cromwell and Wolcottville combined which comes to 6.86 combined sq. miles.

We know of at least 4 farmers that have signed these agreements, one is deceased, but his children have no option to pull out. All the land that we know about is around the intersection of US 6 and 9 going to Albion, possibly extending as far north as 900N and as far south as 500N. As far west as 290W and as far east as Cobblestone Golf Course.

This Ordinance has nothing to do with rooftops, small business, or small-scale solar use. The Commercial Solar Company, who has attended many of the plan commission meetings over the past 3 years, is based out of North Carolina and already has a buyer for the project once it is running.

Companies like EDF Renewables could be potential buyers and France holds a majority share in this company.  Contracts have been known to be sold to several other companies. As Geenex as stated it is sold to whoever has the deepest pockets, some from other countries. The energy credits for this facility will go east to the highest bidder, Noble County will not receive energy from this project.

By allowing an Overlay to be zoned onto your property, all other zoning regulations are essentially covered up by this zone, meaning that while our county may only allow 15-20% of A1 and A2 ground to be covered with impervious structures now, once the overlay is applied, the commercial solar company can cover the project however much they want as long as it is considered relevant to the solar project. The farmers who own the land under the imaginary Overlay will not own the overlay itself and therefore will only have as many rights as they have privately agreed with the Commercial Solar Company in their contract.

We already know of one non-participating home that will be surrounded on 4 sides with solar (all 3 sides on the same side of the road as the house, and also on the field across the road.) We have asked numerous times that there be a limit to how many sides of a non-participating house can be developed and received no such limit. According to the current ordinance the solar project will be surrounded by a 6-10 ft fence topped with razor wire, it may be installed 50ft from a neighbor’s property and 300ft from a neighbor’s home. These are some of the lowest setbacks in our area, with Whitley County requiring a 1,500 ft distance from a neighbor’s property line, and Dekalb County requiring 400-800 ft from a neighbor’s property, depending on how many sides of the neighbor’s property are affected. Most problems documented with solar facilities have to do with erosion and flooding (too many impervious structures). Battery packs are also known to catch fire spontaneously (Auburn recently had a battery fire at a solar site off 69). Every acre will hold as many as 2,000 panels, each containing 1 gram of lead. There are about 454 grams in a pound, which means at the very least every acre will hold 4 pounds of lead.

We are particularly concerned with the end-of-life decommissioning of these panels as we have already been told that the site will be sold several times to government-funded or foreign companies. We approached the Executive Director of the Northeast Indiana Solid Waste Management District to inquire about the cost of recycling these panels, he gave us a quote of $165,000 per acre for recycling (for all 4,700 acres that is a total of $775,500,000) Right now a company may get approval for this project with only a letter of credit. With government funding always changing and foreign government relations questionable, we would like all money to be required to be escrowed ahead of development, so that Noble County will have the money to take care of these sites if they are abandoned, destroyed, or reach the end of the contract life. Currently, a company has the option to escrow funds but may also choose instead to obtain a letter of credit. The only reason that our county officials have decided not to require an escrow as the ONLY option of funding, is because they believe it makes our county seem uninviting to large scale commercial solar developers. But unless the money is secured, there is always a potential that the county will be left with an extremely expensive problem, and of course the county expenses are taken from tax dollars, which of course come from Noble County Taxpayers.

On top of all this, our Commercial Solar Ordinance also states that once 4,700 acres (7.34 square miles) have been approved the county must wait a year, and then may consider allowing more Commercial Solar Development in Noble County (how much land will we have left?). Dekalb County recently had a narrow escape from 1,800 acres being approved, with the commercial solar company missing approval by one commissioner vote.

In closing we believe that these Solar sites are harmful to the growth, development, and home value in our county, but at the very least would like to make sure that NO taxpayer money is in jeopardy. We disagree with any Tax abatement that may be granted to the Commercial Solar

company and we ask that all decommissioning funds be escrowed for the County prior to development. We are currently looking at the final approval of this ordinance happening at the end of March. We appreciate any help that we can get in protecting our homes and neighbors from the negative effects of this proposal. Once this Ordinance is passed, the Solar Developer in our area has already said they are ready to start the approval process.

 

Please reach out for any additional information to:

farmfieldsnotsolarfields@gmail.com

Olivia McGahan (260) 243-2142 or Bill Schultz (260)740-8692

Or Stop by the Plan Commission Office in Albion and ask them about these questions on your own.

Even better yet, we need people to show up to the Commissioners meeting on March 25th at 9:30am (numbers matter!!!). This will be a public hearing, where the public may voice their concern. If you can’t make it to the meeting, you can email us your thoughts along with your name and address by March 11 and we will make sure that the commissioners get them.