24 August 2026 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes
Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman,Mark Lehman, Joe Vogel, Russell Beiersdorfer, Sabrina Gregory, Jake Hoog, Dan Lansing, Jim Thatcher, and Eric Lang
Also Present: Nicole Daily, Planning and Zoning Director, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney. Also Commissioner Duane Bischoff was present. Commissioner Candidate Jeff Cotton was also present. Approximately 60 people were in the audience.
Baudendistel read the Title VI statement as legally required.
Kraus reminded people to be courteous to all the speakers so everyone can be heard.
ACTION ON MINUTES: none
OLD BUSINESS: none
NEW BUSINESS:
1. Request: Zone Map Amendment request from Agriculture (A) district to a Light Industrial (I-1) district, for the purpose of a metal roofing, siding and custom trim, with kits and materials, along with future fabrication business
Applicant: Seig Surveying Owner: Joseph Burdette and Amy Jo Fletcher Site Location: 11719 SR 48 Parcel: 15-05-19-700-018.000-019 & 15-05-19-300-016.000-019 (portions of both lots) Township: Manchester Size of Rezone: 18.76 acres
Nicole Daily presented: 4 pages of information on the plans.
Rob Seig, Surveyor, represented for the Owners. He agreed with what Daily presented. They own adjacent property to the west of this. Existing business in Ripley County and they have overgrown that. The septic is for A 3 bedroom home and needs to be revised for commercial etc. Been in business since 2021. They have some of their own crew that works with this as well as having this for other contractors This is build out that will be used soon. They will erect a 7 ft fence along the setback line. They will have buffer yards and landscaping. They plan to work within the areas less visible from the road and neighbors. They will probably want to extend the paving time limit to get buildings all in first and compacted before paving. They want to bring products to this area that support Ag uses. This will also provide jobs. 50 percent is probably the maximum surface acreage. Detention and retention is on the southern part of the property and he is confident they can expand it if needed.
Amy Fletcher (co-owner)owns 2-3 parcels to the west of this. She has business too. If they were to get more in the future, they will have to come back to get permission.
Board finishes their questions and opened Public Discussion:
Woman asked about a noise ordinance with metal fabrication and also the changing of more of our AG land.
Closed Public Discussion:
Daily brought forth the Noise Ordinance for the Board. Only commercial noise complaints were2-3 in last 5 years was for the flour mill out in West Harrison TIF.
Per Seig- Hours of operation M-F from 7-4 and limited hours on Saturday. They have 10-20 customers.day. Anticipate 30. Cars mostly and trucks with trailers, about 1 semi a week delivering material. They have. Metal press- some cutting but well set back from neighbors. This will mostly be on the south end of the property. Radio in the shop is louder than the equipment.
Per Seig- Lighting will be needed- and they will do what code requires. They will direct lighting inward to the property.
Baudendistel- They can include written commitments in the rezone. For Zone MAP amendments the choices are Fav, Unfav or No recommendation. And the commissioners have to base their vote on what was sent to them. ONLY ON ORDINANCE TEXT AMENDMENTS can commissioners add their own changes and approved them. NOT for this Map amendment. If they need more time to get the concrete areas in - they will need to go to BZA beyond 2 years.
Anything beyond 50 % maximum on the impervious surfaces will require them coming back to the PC.
Mark Lehman motioned for a Favorable recommendation for rezone Ag H to I-1 for the Metal Fabricating Business with the following written commitments. All outdoor storage areas defined and solid fence as buffers. List of permitted uses adhered to in statement R3, Gravel only for 2 years and then go to BZA if it needs to be extended, Limit size of the impervious uses, excluding the driveway existing on these plans outside the setback, to 50% of the total area and within setbacks Citing article 5. Beiersdorfer 2nded. Thatcher abstains, Gregory NAY, the rest are Ayes. Approved the Fav Recommendation.
This will be certified by the Sept 15th meeting for Commissioners.
7:30 PM
ADMINISTRATIVE:
Citizen Solar Representatives: A citizen has requested the following individuals serve as their representatives to provide a presentation to the Board. The group has been allotted a total of 30 minutes, which shall both the presentation and any questions and answers from the Board. These presenters are as follows:
Environmental Topic: Jennifer Loeffler with Energy Renewal Partners, LLC - Background of 14 years with environmental. Section 19- Woodland preservations aligns with 36-7-4-601. Supports preservation of woodland habitat. Thinks there are provisions that will not survive legal challenge.
Existing ordinance allows timber production.
Does woodland requirement fit? A 30% woodland preservation requirement exceeds what the current ordinance requires for health safety and welfare.
Requires the ordinance match up to these same purposes. So the ordinance has to rest on solid legal footing. Has to match up to the state requirements in above IC code.
Cited other regs that protect wetlands etc. To keep it durable and defensible PC should stay within flood plain regs, woodlands, etc.
Road set back and enhanced landscape screening -and unintended environmental impacts of urban berms as it has a greater amount of ground disturbance. It’s important to disturb as little ground as possible. Urban berms upset existing water runoff. And can generate erosion. It would also require bringing in fill imported from offsite areas. Fill can add contaminants from outside the area. Disruption of hydrology too.
Minimum setbacks from floodplain. Some conflicts in this with ordinance. 50 ft of a water feature don’t create a hazard in her experience. Sees no strong link tying this to health safety and welfare.
19-0-6.5- Define the flood plain boundaries being regulated. She recommends the use Army Corps of Engineers and EPA and IDEM requirements for wetland identification.
Safety Topic: Michael Townsend with Jensen Hughes, Inc. He is an expert in fire and safety. They have 2000 employees. A few comments of ordinance. How many risks travel by schools on a daily basis? If you are with the 2mile distance of a school, the fire dept. Ponds can be used for fire water- they do not require one. The $100,000 required is not ordinary. The training is what is required to fight the fires for these Solar Farms.
Property Values Topic: Nick Kirkland with Kirkland Appraisals. Look at actual uses and compare the property value changes. At about 200 ft with a vegetative buffer supports no impact to property value. Focus on 19.35g. It might take longer than 6 months to sell properties- and still not affect property value. If the overall market goes down, that affects it too. We’ve looked at this issue a lot- it’s what we do. Thinks a good neighbor agreement would be a flat payment to the neighbors from the solar facility each year. This eliminates the appraisers getting the money.
Construction: Ryan Kelly with MASTEC • - 30 minutes is up- he cannot speak.
Eric Lang- Following FEMA minimums is NOT the best way to do things- NOTE what happened with recent 500 year flood event. Using his engineering- in the past- saved a 16 million building. Enough said.
The Plan Commission has received a completed draft of the Solar Energy Systems Ordinance for review and consideration.
During the August Plan Commission meeting, the Commission will review the draft ordinance and may receive comments, suggestions, and recommendations.
No action or vote was taken on the draft Solar Energy Systems Ordinance at the August meeting.
Scheduled a SPECIAL Sept 9 PC meeting on Solar Ordinance at 6 PM.
Nicole asked board if they want to take comments section by section. Agreed apparently.
8:15 PM
Started with 1900- page 1 Purpose and Intent:
Emily Hartman- agrees with the intent. Will email her version of how it should read to them as it was read fast.
Topher Anderson- with Indiana Land Liberty Coalition——(does he live here? ) Said the ordinance purpose is to keep out solar farms.
No one else wants to speak to page 1.
Section 1902-Definitions
Page 2 Take “etc.” out and get specific.
Page 3 Project site size needs to be cleaned up. What needs to be included in the site size calculation- access roads, detention ponds, easements of underground utilities, perimeter fencing, landscaping setbacks, and so forth…..
Page 4 eliminate the last sentence.
Public comment- Emily Hartman- definitions in original solar ordinance were on better track. Thinks they should be based more on size and who served. Concerned about the loopholes we are creating with this.
Also thinks we should have a definition of prime farmland.
Daily said they are having trouble getting %ages on map. 13% is classified in the county - of prime soils. Another 6% are prime IF DRAINED. Cannot figure out how to regulate it.
Emily will send them the USDA definition.
Baudendistel - said Title 7 b 6 f part 657 section 657.5 has the definition of prime and unique farmland.
Bobby Rauen- look at Madison County’s - Look at different classifications of solar systems for example Commercial Large- is anything greater than 20 acres.
Brandon Lang- Look at Beacon GIS online and see what is my land versus their land.
Close Public discussion.
8:50 PM
Section - 1904- intent was to show the systems that do not require ZONING permits- just building ones for example - Rooftop solar.
Section 1906- page 6 penalty follows state statute for enforcement. Have consistency of heights. They want to have a structural engineer to evaluate it. Projects need an engineer’s stamp for major site plans.
Page 7 remove “etc.”
Who is Tech review committee? - Nicole Daily- All dept heads and soil and water, county engineer, health, building inspector.
All agreed it was a “Good place to stop.”
Meeting adjourned at 9 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
