26 October 2026 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

 

26 October 2026 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

This was a 4 1/2 hour meeting.

Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman, Mark Lehman, Russell Beiersdorfer, Sabrina Gregory, Joe Vogel, Jake Hoog, Dan Lansing, Jim Thatcher, and Eric Lang

Also Present:  Nicole Daily, Planning and Zoning Director, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, Duane Bischoff, Commissioner, and Jeff Cotton, Commissioner-elect.

Baudendistel read the Title VI statement as legally required.

ACTION ON MINUTES- none 

 NEW BUSINESS – 1. Request: Declaratory Resolution for establishing an Economic Development Area and allocation area—Givaudan Property Applicant: Dearborn County Redevelopment Commission Site Location: 1434 Harrison Brookville Road Parcel: 15-01-11-400-006.020-006 Township: Harrison Size: 26.206 acres. Denny Kraus, Chairman,  stepped down from the board as he sits on the DCRC board. 

Mark Lehman became Acting Chairman for this item. 

Jim Deaton- DCRC Chairman, Asked if there were any questions from the board. He explained that this business becomes its own TIF with its own timeline, separate from the others in this area. 

Opened Public Discussion.

No one spoke on this item

Closed Public Discussion. 

Declaratory Resolution 2026-02 establishing an Economic Development Area and an Allocation area for the Givaudan Property in the West Harrison TIF. For 25 years. Approved Unanimously. 

6:15 PM

ADMINISTRATIVE— 1. Plan Commission Working Session Notice — Board Discussion on Draft Article 19 This portion of the meeting will be conducted as a working session for members of the Plan Commission Board only. The purpose of the session is to review and discuss the proposed changes to Draft Article 19 regarding the solar ordinance, consider potential revisions, and facilitate open discussion among Board members. No formal votes or official actions will be taken during this session. Public comment and public participation in the discussion will not be accepted during this portion of the meeting.

This was so the Plan Commission Members could discuss and get their ideas to Daily to finish out the ordinance.

Nicole Daily- said she and 3 other staff members reviewed the alternative ordinance and she said there were inconsistencies in out compared to the other one  and she did not not recommend adopting it. She did say they could pull some things from this though. PAGE 31 AND 32- Requirements of an application and they had baseline testing before start and every 5 years and before decommissioning. 

Jake Hoog asked if this was just the project itself. They would do the perimeter and entry areas and drainage areas especially those that leave the site. Do this after seeing the plans. Testing within a mile- would involve a problem with isolation of the source as it is a larger area involved.

With electromagnetic fields with signage warning of that. Kept the landscaping the way we have it. Trees to grow to 20 ft in one year- unrealistic- as none go that fast. Emergency financial assistance program was not part of the citizen’s draft and was kept. We added that the bond was kept at 120% for that. 

Eric Lang- drainage - is there anything that tilts the scale to force them to slow down the drainage. MS4 coordinator said to keep some of these in MS4 and not transfer duplication to the solar ordinance. 

Mark Lehman- wish wed thought of this earlier. If we are near an existing electrical field substation. Daily- Maybe put this in 1920. Listed under solar criteria for BZA conditional uses. Board agreed that you get a preferred status if you have a substation near them. 

Eric Lang said as we go thru some of this we cannot adopt it as is- too many inconsistencies. Try to adopt items from this proposed alternative ordinance to see if we can give them some of their due on this.

Using a 4th Option D to work with this. This was in response to Dan Lansing’s questions. Starting on 1900 Purpose and Intent. Changed to LEASE AREA and not the boundary of the parcel. This is for leases that don’t include ether entire parcel.

Highway director definition is already in our code, so not needed. 

Energy developer is not kept- but anyone who does solar is the applicant is already defined in Article 27. 

Prime Farmland that is 6 % in protected flood areas. Up to the board to decide what soil types are prime farmland.

RC 8 metals- are defined in a different way. There is a TCR test for these.

Sabrina Gregory asked about setbacks - where to place. Daily wanted it in the Development standards section. 

Our project types are different from the citizen’s proposed ordinance. 

Example- 1 Mega Watt solar acreage and the sizes. 

1904- things requiring permits. Citizen’s drafts had permits being required. Not sure what to do with that. 

1906- the only thing she changed were work hours 7AM - 7PM to coincide with Article 27.

Small solar is for homes and barns. We have height of 15 ft. Did we want to regulate the acreage size of this.There is an option to have it in there. We talked about 2 acres at meetings. Eric Lang agreed that 2 aces is a good start. Not including roof mounted. 

Ground mounted solar has to meet primary structure setback. Inverters protection is still there if a nuisance outside this ordinance. Per Daily. Lang thought these would not be louder than normal AC units. We show look at light and noise ordinances per Daily. 

1915- Large scale-Max acreage, need to go to BZA for height increases. 

Eric Lang brought up conditional use- they could lay out something out that they have crossed Ts and dotted Is- there is still discretion on Ag or Ag H because it is a conditional use. So they do NOT have to approve it. 

Sabrina Gregory corrected- Maximum size shall to Shall NOT exceed 20 acres. Daily agreed. 

Preapplicaton meeting with staff. Had an idea about applicant having a community meeting with 45 days. The applicant has to do public notice etc and pay for it all. The county would want all documentation of the meeting place time etc and teh sign in sheets and so on. Lang wants to know if the county will add them to a citizen email group so they get notified. Daily added that idea. 

There were items on notice being given. Consultants will be required by P&Z.

In 315 we have things they crossed out to make them consistent as a couple were repetitious. 

Jake Hoog- you have how long to request an application for conditional use ? - One year as in other areas. This is where they added #5 about distance close to a substation being more favorable. 

Commercial and Industrial - there is a max solar site and primary setbacks and canopy solar also had setbacks. Landscaping would follow Article 22, depending on surrounding use and zoning districts. 

Utility scale solar. Currently 1200 acres with 2 mile separation. Spreadsheet on this. Look at the citizen’s draft. Their setbacks are on age 11. Hey also had land use limitations with standards on page 27.  Citizens have project size not to exceed 200 acres. 

Lehman asked about the advantage of not having them contiguous but counting as the project. Daily- It provides a visual break- looks better- less massive. Eric Lang would that throw a curve ball to solar developers? 

Daily- The 1200 number came from jumping it from 1000 acres. WHY?

Eric Lang- throwing out ideas about acreage size. He talked about what we were doing in comp plan maps with Ag and Ag H and now this is undoing that. Applause- which Lang asked them to.   Thought about having farmers getting financial helps with smaller amounts of solar share among 3 farms for example. Parceling it average per farmer. Had to have property 5 years or more. No trading the property around. 

Jake Hoog- 200 acres max- 1200 way too large. Sabrina Gregory. Agreed. She had percentages of the farmland in the county. 

Lansing said averaging out - maybe 500 acres.

Lang - one section is 640 acres - one square mile. 

Lehman and Lang were discussing the acreages and how to give people a shot at a slice of the solar pie.

Lang- 200 acres is HUGE- a gut punch. 

Discussing this would force them to aggregate and combine the buffers maybe too. Underground connections would not necessary deem that owner as a participating owner.

Hoog- if you have a limit of a half mile radius?

Lehman is more on favor of a total cap in the county. Rather than pick winners and losers, we let the market be on its own. 

Lansing- 1-1.5% of farmland- 49,633 acres in farm so 496 is 1%. 

Board members ask about industrial percentages in the county. More discussion about the market versus caps etc.  They also have a list of extra criteria to get the special exception or conditional use granted.

Continued discussions on the percentages or using up farm or solar on setbacks.Including going down to lower numbers for solar such as 30 acres maybe. 

Setback is at 200 ft for front yard now. 

Lehman and Beiersdorfer talking about how to lower the setbacks if they do certain landscaping and trees. Beiersdorfer hate stop see 200 ft going to waste. Lehman- the drainage could be in that 150 ft spot as that is required. So could more plantings.

Board 200 and 125 ft are the board’s preferences so far for front yard setback.

Side yards- 150ft from dwelling units

Inverters - try to force them to the center of the project. 

Rear yards- storage areas. 

Fencing 7 ft. and no barb wire. 

16 ft minimum for access roadway. - Lang should be 2 lane there - not a choke point

Internal access roads 18 ft? Beiersdorfer- wants Daily to check and update those

Put internal roads 30 ft from property line minimum 

Accommodate roots. Deciduous and evergreen trees to have more variety and character. 

50 ft setback if the buffer yard double staggered along dwelling increases. 60 ft every where else. 

Topsoil retention not removed from site. It will be collected and stockpile on site. Or make an earthen berm with it. 

15,027 acres of woodland. 1/3 of county is woodland. 1% is 150 acres. Make it 3% - 450 acres. They can use the ordinance numbers as they are more stringent. 

Property value is then out of this as it is being put in the economic development agreement. 

Noise- more detailed than before. Winter months with no vegetation to test. Lang wants to get to the different types of noise- high. Low  Shrill. Etc. Lang is going to try to look and see that to plug in. 

Decommissioning- They remove it - no matter the depth. Stricter than the citizens draft. 

Landscape management plan is still there. Plus maintenance.

Environmental soil and water testing. We have baseline and every 5 years within the project itself. Citizens wanted it within a mile also. Sample per 10 acres. We had it once every 6 months.THIS DISCUSSION WENT ON FOR QUITE A WHILE!

Property value guarantee is in economic development agreement. It is voluntary. It is between property owner and the solar applicant.

Took out family stuff and had notifications from solar and 90 days to respond to applicant. Owner can get 2nd appraisal if they cannot agree. Applicant could purchase property or pay them the difference. 

County responsibility is 0. They are staying out of this. Getting Andy Baudendistel to work on this. Beiersdorfer is ok with this - his concerns were covered. 

PUBLIC HEARING – Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held pursuant to Indiana Code § 36-7-4-607 regarding proposed amendments to the Dearborn County Zoning Ordinance. The proposed amendments would apply to the unincorporated areas of Dearborn County and would amend Article 19—Solar Energy Systems of the Dearborn County Zoning Ordinance. The proposed amendments would establish processes, requirements, and development standards for SmallScale Solar Projects, Large-Scale Solar Projects, Community-Scale Solar Projects, and Utility-Scale Solar Projects. 

In your packet was another citizens draft ordinance. Received today. This was on Eagle Radio Online. The Stop Solar Group is not affiliated with this one. myfatmonkey@yahoo.com sent this anonymously to them. 

Daily wants to put the Solar Ordinance for vote on November 12 for a recommendation to Commissioners. 

Citizens Advisory is still with Commissioners. 

November 12 is next special PC Solar Meeting- 6 PM

Meeting adjourned at 10:25PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township