County Attorney updates Commissioners on Tamarack BZA appeal case

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 3:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

County Attorney Sean Surrisi gave the Commissioners a brief status update on the Tamarack Solar BZA appeal.

The attorney reminded the commissioners that Tamarack had filed a motion for a change in venue from Marshall County, while the BZA attorneys filed a response to the change in venue. Surrisi said, “Both sides made some compelling arguments about whether or not Tamarack was entitled to a change of venue.” He said it centered around whether the BZA is its own entity or if it's part of the county. If part of the county, Tamarack would be entitled to seek a change of venue. Surrisi said case law was a bit unclear, and both sides made good arguments, but for certainty's sake, and if the motion was granted, the case would be assigned to another court in an adjacent county, the attorneys were able to agree on Judge Jennifer DeGroote Allen County Superior Court. She agreed to take the case, so a stipulation was filed in Superior Court III saying the parties agreed to a change of venue, and the court granted the change.

Tamarack’s deadline to file the BZA record with the court is Tuesday, April 8^th. While most of the documents are prepared, except for the transcripts of all the public hearings. A court reporter completed the transcript but was unable to certify the names of many of the speakers, so she typed unknown speakers.

For clarity's sake, Lori Lowery in the County Planning Department will review all the videos and her notes from the meetings and work to identify the unknown speakers. Because of this, a 30-day extension is being submitted to the court for approval.

Surrisi said, “Things are in a little bit of a delay until the record gets completed and it gets venued over to the new court, but it is still progressing.”