If you had been planning to ask St. Joseph County Commissioners Tuesday night to veto the solar farm property guarantee bill that the county council passed last week, you were in for a change of plans.
Indiana law generally empowers a county’s executive body, the commissioners, to veto bills passed by the legislative body, the council. But St. Joseph County Commissioners Tuesday issued a press release saying their attorney, Phillip Garrett, has advised them that state law says they cannot veto zoning text amendments or zoning map changes.
Instead, Garrett says state law requires the area plan commission to approve zoning text amendments that are initiated by the county council.
Last week the council passed a bill pushed by Republican Council President Dan Schaetzle that requires solar farm developers to compensate people within a mile if their property values decline after the solar panels are installed. Critics say it will deter solar developers from coming into the county.
But Republican Commissioners President Carl Baxmeyer says he supports solar farms. As a redevelopment commission member, before he became a county commissioner, he supported Lightsource BP’s Honeysuckle solar farm near New Carlisle.
Baxmeyer says he’s received emails from at least 30 people asking him to veto the bill. He plans to speak against it at the Aug. 19 Area Plan Commission meeting and he hopes solar supporters will join him then.
“I basically don’t like it," Baxmeyer said, "but I want to have my thoughts and reasons fully explained when I appear before the Area Plan Commission.”
