Porter County has rejected the Malden Solar Project's application for zoning approval.
Development & Storm Water Director Bob Thompson says NextEra Energy Resources' application was the largest his office has ever gotten, so he hired an outside attorney to help him review it. "The department has made the official zoning determination that Malden Solar's application is not complete and fails to contain all of the information required by the repealed Porter County Ordinance Number 20-11 Solar Energy Systems and the Porter County Unified Development Ordinance," Thompson told the county commissioners Monday.
Thompson said he informed NextEra of his determination in a letter last week. He said NextEra can now appeal the decision to the board of zoning appeals, apply to the BZA for a variance or reapply once a new solar ordinance is in place, since the commissioners repealed the 2020 solar ordinance back in April.
Some opponents to the project were still frustrated that it got that far in the first place.
Arvid Merkner said thousands of emails he obtained through public records requests show that NextEra was allowed to review the ordinance before the public, the plan commission or Commissioner Jim Biggs. When a public hearing on the solar ordinance did take place in March of 2020, it happened right as the COVID-19 shutdown began.
"The damage that's been done by this corrupted process is just stunning," Merkner told the commissioners. "It's turned neighbor against neighbor. It's ended longstanding friendships. It's caused people to sell their homes and to leave the area. What is especially disturbing is that it's destroyed the trust and the confidence of the people in the county's government."
Commissioner Biggs, now board president, said he first learned of the Malden Solar proposal more than a year after the ordinance was approved — unaware that conversations had been taking place with Thompson, the other commissioners and the county attorney. "It is absolutely inexcusable that I didn't know," Biggs said. "There is no reason that I shouldn't have been told."
Commissioner Laura Blaney said she was included on the emails because the proposed solar farm was in her district and then-commissioner Jeff Good was included because he was board president. She said she didn't intentionally exclude Biggs but probably hit "Reply All" in her responses.
That explanation didn't satisfy resident Susie Talevski. "Laura, you're shameless," Talevski told Blaney. "Commissioner, yes, you are. Commissioner Blaney, you are shameless. I think I can speak for a lot of people here. You should resign your position because it's literally a full-time job monitoring you."
Resident Paula Brown asked county officials to wait and see how other counties handle solar farms, or just ban them outright. "Please, we ask you, don't let our county be the next Jasper or Starke County that has ruined their rural landscape for the solar companies, only to line their pockets with tens of millions in subsidies," Brown said.
Commissioner Barb Regnitz promised to do a better job of informing the public, when controversial issues are expected to be discussed.
