County mulls extending solar moratorium

Fulton County officials are expected to extend a moratorium on large-scale solar projects through the end of the year

Fulton County Area Plan Commission Director Heather Redinger informed commissioners Monday that the current moratorium in place expires August 1. It was originally enacted to give the plan commission time to evaluate the county's current solar ordinance, and gather research on solar farm operations ahead of any recommended amendments. 

A resolution in support of extending the moratorium is expected to be approved by the plan commission Monday. An accompanying ordinance would then be presented for commissioners' consideration at their next meeting, 9 a.m. July 1 at the Fulton County Office Building, 125 E. Ninth St. 

"Monday will be our first big discussion about solar, and then hopefully we can get our public hearings done, but we won't have anything in place by August," Redinger said.

The plan commission meets at 7 p.m. Monday at the Fulton County Office Building. 

Commissioners were praised when enacting the moratorium last August. That meeting received a larger turnout than usual by several people expressing how they were negatively impacted by solar developments. 

The moratorium took effect immediately upon passage and is restricted to solar farm operations that are 435,601 square feet or more of solar panel surface area.

Micro, small, medium and large arrays are not affected. 

Commissioners have been encouraged to adopt similar rules and regulations for solar energy systems as Kosciusko County. 

Fulton County's current solar ordinance was enacted in October 2018 and, at less than two pages in length, doesn't come close to covering the same amount of regulations as Kosciusko County's roughly 13-page ordinance, which outlines requirements for setbacks, height, drainage, vibrations, electrical components, aesthetics and lighting, signage, removal, fire prevention, glare, property value and more.