Solar farm ordinance passes in St. Joseph County with guarantee of market value for nearby homes

ST. JOSEPH, Ind. (WNDU) — It is a bold move and a done deal.

The St. Joseph County Plan Commission gave the green light on Tuesday to an ordinance taking aim at large scale solar farms.

The measure requires developers to guarantee the market value of nearby homes and to potentially compensate homeowners if their property value decreases after the construction of a solar farm.

Eugene Matzat sits on the St. Joseph County Plan Commission.

Tuesday, he voted in favor of an ordinance that will almost assuredly make it more expensive for developers to construct solar farms in St. Joseph County because developers will have to post a surety bond and compensate neighboring homeowners if their property value drops.

“People are going to have solar on three or four sides of them, which will clearly bring down the value of their homes. So, you know if you have a farmer who has farmland close to the city, where he’s not going to affect the home values of a lot of folks, then we can rezone that, but for most of our farmland, we need to leave it farmland,” said St. Joseph County Council President Dan Schaetzle.

The plan commission meeting was well attended by those eager to keep farmland, farmland but also by advocates for solar power and sustainable energy.

Solar advocate, Steve Francis was in a fairly blue funk after the plan commission’s vote.

“I think that this vote will unfortunately cause solar development to not exist in St. Joe County, farmers will lose revenue, the county will lose revenue as a result of not allowing solar investment because the costs incurred by this property value guarantee will be so great that solar developers will not come to St. Joe County,” said Steve Francis.

The ordinance could indeed be costly for solar farm developers.

Before a solar farm is constructed, a developer-hired assessor will determine the value of surrounding properties.

If a home sells for less than the appraised value after 270 days on the market the solar developer is on the hook for the difference or must purchase the property at the pre-solar project value.

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