A funny thing happened on the way to a meeting next week where a proposed solar farm in the Cloverdale area of Putnam County was again to be the center of discussion.
EnergyRe was set to appear before the Putnam County Plan Commission Monday night with its proposed plan to bring a 150 megawatt project to the county. However, according to an email from attorney Kyle T. Resetarits to Lisa Zeiner, Director of the Plan Commission, a continuance was sought and granted. The move means there will be no public hearing pertaining to a rezone request Monday.
"A continuance will allow the Petitioner to finalize supplemental presentation materials and address public concerns in a way that will materially aid the Plan Commission's review of the matter and the completeness of the record. We believe proceeding on a continued date will streamline the hearing and better align the presentation with the Plan Commission's decision criteria," Resetarits wrote.
While a new date has not been selected, county attorney Jim Ensley said the matter may not be set until March.
The continuance request comes months after the Putnam County Commissioners put into effect a moratorium on solar farms until Nov. 17, 2026. The moratorium also covers data centers, wind farms, and solar energy conservation systems.
In addition, last year, both the Plan Commission and Putnam County Commissioners voted a rezone request from EnergyRe down.
That hasn't stopped the company from trying again.
Paul Cummings, Senior Vice President of Development, spoke at the meeting last month where Commissioners instituted the moratorium. He told those in attendance EnergyRe revised its plan, submitting another proposal for a smaller operation.
He said EnergyRe revised its application, taking into consideration concerns that had previously been mentioned.
"We increased the setbacks, increased the solar dividend and cut the project in half. Throughout the entire process, we have met the ordinance as it was put into place, clearly. There are two projects that were denied that clearly met the ordinance as it was put into place. There was plenty of time after the first one to revise the ordinance, but it wasn't done. We were going above and beyond and our commitments were several pages long. We put those in. We spent a year sending eight letters, saying come talk to us, how will this fit and we didn't...there's a clear ordinance with a clear standard. When you start looking at that sort of a pattern, you start to think what is the sense of having a zoning ordinance. It becomes what you call exclusionary zoning or a defacto moratorium," said Cummings, who also told the Commissioners people were concerned to participate in county government activities due to intimidation and bullying by members of the commission.
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