A year after enacting tighter restrictions on solar farms, St. Joseph County leaders Tuesday night passed another bill that goes even further.
Last July the council passed a bill stating that solar farms can’t come within 500 feet of neighboring homes. The bill also required solar energy systems to obtain special use zoning permits and plant trees to shield solar panels from view.
On Tuesday night the council voted 5-4 to pass a new set of restrictions in a bill authored by Republican Council President Dan Schaetzle. The council’s other four Republicans voted with him. The new bill requires solar farm developers to compensate property owners within a mile if their property values decline after the solar farm starts operating.
People on both sides of the issue cited conflicting studies on whether solar farms hurt neighboring property values.
Schaetzle said he was motivated to offer the bill after talking with a North Liberty resident whose property value has declined because their home is near the new Hexagon solar farm, which is grandfathered by last year’s restrictions and these new ones.
Jeff Rea, president and CEO of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supported last year’s bill but this one goes too far.
“We’re concerned about its passage and what its further implications could be down the road on other types of uses," Rea told the council. "If we were to poll the folks in the audience tonight, all of us would have uses that we thought were objectionable. This is a bad piece of policy that could get worse if people potentially expand it later.”
