St. Joseph County passes solar ordinance amendments to guarantee property value

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. (WSBT) — There are big changes to how solar farms are developed in St. Joseph County.

On Tuesday, the St. Joseph County Area Plan Commission passed multiple amendments to the county’s solar ordinance to guarantee property value for homeowners near new solar developments.

There was a lengthy discussion from the commission ahead of the 7-1 vote to approve the changes.

Those in attendance had mixed reactions, some cheering after the decision and others walking out in frustration.

There was a packed house at the County-City Building waiting to see if non-industrial large-scale solar developments would need to compensate property owners who see a reduction in property value.

The decision means incoming large-scale solar developers must compensate homeowners within one mile of a solar development who see a property value reduction.

But there are exemptions for solar farms already under development.

Tuesday’s decision will primarily impact new developments looking at special use rezoning.

One member of the area plan commission said this decision is one way to not only protect farmland but also those living in the surrounding area.

“When something that is going to be put next door will affect basically the whole community and indicates that property values could go down or it changed the esthetic of the community, I think then something like this needs to be put in place to help protect that landowner,” said Eugene Matzat, Area Plan Commission Member/Agricultural Interests Representative.

St. Joseph County Council President Dan Schaetzle said the amendments aim to balance the rights of agricultural land owners and homeowners.

“People are going to have solar on three or four sides of them, which would 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 I think that for the most of our farmland, we need to leave a farmland,” said Schaetzle.

Those in attendance shared concerns and said the amendments single out solar but also raise concern for other developments in the future.

“I think that it will bode ill for development, not just of solar, but all kinds of development in, St. Joe County, because we are going to pursue property value guarantees on industrial development, data centers, commercial development as well,” said Steve Francis, who is against solar ordinance amendments.

Andre Stoner, an advocate for solar farm development, said there are already solutions in place such as setbacks and tree barriers and thinks there are ways to make them fit into the area.

“You can have agrivoltaics, which is dual use. For example, you can have grazing or pollinators or row crops in in solar fields. So there are a lot of ways that you can make it fit into the into the community,” said Stoner.

The new amendments do not impact future large scale solar developments on industrial land or projects already underway.