21 September 2026 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

 21 September 2026 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

This meeting was just shy of 4 hours. 

Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman, Mark Lehman, Sabrina Gregory, Joe Vogel, Dan Lansing, and Eric Lang

ABSENT: Jim Thatcher, Russell Beiersdorfer, Jake Hoog, and Attorney, Andy Baudendistel

Also Present:  Nicole Daily, Planning and Zoning Director, and Duane Bischoff, Commissioner 

Meeting started at 6:10 PM 

Dennis Kraus, Jr, read the Title VI statement as legally required.

ACTION ON MINUTES- none

OLD BUSINESS:none

NEW BUSINESS: Nicole Daily - asked the audience to be respectful as they are on camera. 

Kraus also asked the board about people wanting to speak for a group being granted 10 minutes. Board agreed. 

Daily Page 29 item j is where we left off. Kraus asked if there is adequate water supply needs to be verified. Daily said they must provide in writing from the water supply company was added. 

Signage was spelled out as to what was allowed. 

Per Daily- From here on out - most of these are plan based - Drainage was next. She was trying to tie this to MS4 standards and had talked to the MS4 Coordinator. It refers back to those MS4 documents. Lang wanted to be sure about drip lines etc were also part of MS4 regulations. 

Daily went on: Wetlands delineation study would be required if there are wetlands in the project area. 

Landscape management plan- required as part of the submittal.Details are in the next section. 

Sections 7-12 are the same required plans that are in each solar category. Fore protection etc. 

Page 29- Agrivoltaics- require separate items like grazing plans, soil stabilization, soil and vegetation management. Performance standards and annual reporting an inspections. This is a way to prove they are doing these agricultural items for Agrivoltaics. 

Some of this next section was pulled from Purdue- they are not state recommendations. 

Citizens advisory committee- Bischoff- asked if the format of this matches how major site plan reviews are done. Daily these are on top of those requirements. 

Fire safety and emergency response plan-  standards are in there from EMA Director- Jason Sullivan. Also the different types of fire responses and procedures are described. They also have the training and prevention plans and emergency access via lock box and keys. Emergency contact person should be available on a 24 hour basis. Daily went on at length about all the agencies etc in the plan and training. The EMA Director will review this as well. 

Solar Emergency Fund- $100,000 put into an escrow account and being used within 12 months of receipt. Rules for distributing the funds. This came from Stark County- learned this and added it to theirs after enacted per Daily. They suggested removing the requirement to remove it within 12 months. Board wanted Daily to check wth EMA Director to see if that $100,000 is enough. 

Lang- Also need to add- what happens to those funds after decommissioning has had final inspection. 

Daily to add additional language in here for the community part of his as well. 

Decommissioning Plan - This is required at the time of permitting. 90 days before. If the conditional use or major site plan is revoked, then that could trigger decommissioning. It should be completed within 12 months. Unless extension was requested and approved. The road, parking lots etc, might remain for use of the property owner, if requested that after decommissioning. 

Above ground has to be removed. Under ground or on the ground depends on the property owner’s desires. Example: retention ponds or underground electrical lines and conduits, foundations for transformers - concrete pads. Electric lines and conduit will be decommissioned? Board -probably yes.

Site restoration- Reseeding vegetation, restoration and suitable for ag uses. Depends on initial ag. 

CAC via Bischoff- thought that some of this could be combined as similar. Daily- said one is optional and one is required. (Options at the owners approval)

Decommissioning Financial Assurance- for the county to be able to use if necessary. 150% of the cost of the project and updated every 5 years.  

County Access and Enforcement - Gives the county the right of entry during decommissioning. Inspections etc. No financial released until final county approval. 

Open PUBLIC DISCUSSION page 29-41.7:05 PM

Ed Yelton- Manchester Fire dept- Equipment is very expensive. Would like to see an MS Data sheet on one of these panels. Grass fires get pretty hot. Need to have several depts. around to respond to 1200 acres of a grass fire. Who regulates these people as time goes on. 

Daily- Training shall be offered for all Emergency responders. Annually. Paid by the Solar Company. 

Jeff Brand- Don’t see any triggers about Not following teh requirements or teh ordinance so that the public can trigger. 

Daily- There is a section about violations- the court could revoke and then they decommission. 

Michelle Dudley- Also worried about the costs of all the removal and mitigation and restoration process. Soil Scientist $1790 per acre. To remove residual chemicals etc. Takes 3-5 years to crop after compaction. Sell 57% less. Compaction - root issues. 

Kraus asked for her to email her sources to them.

Bobby Rauen- Our ordinance allows the developer to be able to leave anything underground. Remove all above and below and best management practices. Baseline of online soil and water, nutrients ph etc. this could assure proper restoration. Compaction issues. Standard is to return the land to its documented pre-construction status. He also left them with the details of rewording that.

Jillian Collins-  behalf of Scott Becker also- fire fighter. It is unclear the durations of the ponds. Define adequate for water sources. IN #2 in country for tornadoes. Suggest tornado remediation with broken glass etc. This insurance policy should be higher value. Topsoil preservation- consider. 

Brandon Lang- Wetland streams etc are also regulated by IDEM etc and fire codes already on the books. What if the fire dept doesn’t want the training or extra. Also brought up Givaudan again as requiring extra fire back up. 

Emily Hartman- Responded that seeing the lessons learned about other counties that have enacted these ordinances are doing. 

Stacy Craig- Is there soil testing when decommissioning?  Lang -Yes

Josh Holland- lighting- If a subdivision comes in along a farm- who will enforce putting lighting beyond the property line. What is the equipment called to measure this. ( Daily we do not have one) Need a baseline.

If they have 2 acres or less- 

Annual inspections - who will do it- who pays for this? Outside consultant - paid by county? 

Solar emergency response fund- thinks 3% annual increase seems low. $100,000 is too low. Wants concrete recorded from recorders office if not completed removal.

Nancy Last name? - takes 2-5 years- to get a fire truck- $1-1.5 million for the fire truck. Taxes will go up. They need to write it in here to pay for this. 

Peggy Zoller- Have not been to many meetings-issues of family etc take up her time as do many other people who cannot come to all these meetings. questions- About the triggers for decommissioning. Can this happen in a year or two? - If the company goes bankrupt? The company has to send written notice before they decommission per Daily. She wanted to to know if they had signed an NDA or if Commissioners had. Answer-  NO

Chris Mueller- 150% pf value on the cost of the escrow- cited that percentage as including things that go beyond the cost of the construction when you hav etc take these down. 

CLOSED PUBLIC DISCUSSION- 7:35 PM

Daily- Landscaping Requirements  section.

Daily - Detours on Roads and also looking at the costs to road repairs after construction on the project. Had HWY Engineer take a look at this. This was taken from what the county does when this happens. They do a pre construction status on County Roads out there.  This also applies to decommissioning. This determines the cost to pay for their heavy use. Added staging areas for the trucks so they have a place to wait their turn for entering the site. Lang and Lehman - discussed the ways to document the roads and then analyze what would be needing repair - including road, ROW,  and ditches etc. Daily- They will have a bond for use during the construction phase too.

Property Value Guarantee Program- For all non-participating  owners of property. Eligible people owned by same person at time of the conditional use. Owner occupied. 

CAC comments- It should be applied to all landowners whether living there or not. Once the land or home is sold once- that protection goes away. ( i.e. they know what they are buying into)

Lehman- Ask Andy Baudendistel about any lawsuits on this yet.

Also added that it has to be an actual sale to triggering ineligible. And that a death does change owners but is not a sale. 

They also have criteria for the property owner for this program gets notice within 30 days from the applicant (solar farm company) and then the property owner gets 90 days to apply for the program. Lots of discussion of who can buy property- not family) and enforcement of this. 

3 more Plans:

Wetlands Delineation and Environmental 

Economic Development Agreement- between County and Applicant- financial guarantee that comes up between those 2 parties. This is not specific - not listing the county on these. But if they do not have one- both parties have to agree to that too. 

Report on Noise as compared to the current ambient noise. Has to do this before the development gets in. 

Comment- set up an escrow account for his testing. Other comments on the decibels. Lang- we may revisit this at some point. Vibrations etc might also need to be considered. Gregory- Also document time of year the study is done.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION pages 42-50. 8:40 PM

Dave Sams- Appraisal and Selling Price are different things. Thinks the taxes will go down too so county gets less if property appraises less after this goes in.

Joel Esselman-  property value protection plan is important.!0 counties currently have one of these protection plan. 20% Surety within 3 miles. Usually within 1 mile. 3 % surety , 2 mile guarantee. Many no time limit. We are proposing 1500 ft for 5 years. This is not a payout- unless the property is sold and a lost cost  from an appraiser.  

Ed Yelton- Is there anything in the ordinance for construction noise? No. He wants to have something in here for that. The limit- 8 am to 5 pm. Talk about that. Road- 100% performance bond Lake Tambo and Benning also. Contractor needs to keep Rohe and O’Mara Paving companies on retainer, because these are really heavy loads. 

Lisa- having issues with tech property value guarantee. By the time the kids will inherit- it won’t be as valuable. And the guarantee won’t go out that far.  Why are your sorting and picking - aren’t you for the citizens?

Brandon Lang- It sounds like everybody wants to get paid. There are too many things that are complicating this. I am not insensitive to this. You are asking the developer to do a genealogy project on anyone who is selling. We are making it overly complicated for no good reason. Vacant land next to a solar farm goes up 19%- as it is assumed that you can get in on the project. Look at the good neighbor policy that solar companies do. Encourages that.

Josh Holland- Debt service for the South Dearborn schools. Research this. See the Gateway and do research.

F words- February - do the noise evaluation - with snow and without.

Property Value Guarantee- 10 years of taxes.

Marshall County- Law of averages on the setbacks 

Jeff Brand- engineer noise measurement, frequencies and harmonic frequencies, and vibrations. A DB meter doesn’t measure the irritating aspect of some noises. An acoustic engineer needs to do this study and profile. There should be s mitigation plan in place should the applicant need that/ Also night time versus daytime. He sent references to Nicole for them.

Josh Holland- frequency is another rF word.

Kim Kraft- Solar in my back yard and on 3 sides of her home. How does a set back help in her situation. Brandon is my neighbor. 

Stacy Craig- Agrees with Brandon - Property Value Guarantee is too complicated - how to uncomplicated the property value. The language has to be such that it would be appraised without the solar. Can’t do it 5 years later. It should be updated at sale. Important that it is a local appraiser. 

Jillian Collins- Economic Development agreement. Having the applicant report on their own non- compliance. Section I #8 Economic Development Agreement. Fix that to someone neutral reporting.

Amy Sloan- Solar development pays people and it makes it look like property value increases.

5 year - extend to the life of the project. 

Bob Montague- research is mixed Ball State found no significant negative effect. At the same time others have found decline in the rural areas. Spenser County has one,  St Joseph County does, Delaware County does, Posey County does. Independent evidence shows this the homeowner should not have to bear that loss. If evidence does not, the protection still would demonstrate that. I am not looking for a payout. Now 2 sides of my house are next to this. I can still be reasonable. 

Close PUBLIC 9:25 PM

Lang said- We hear Linnea tell us on two different occasions, that property values do not go down around Solar.  You could make it 10 miles - (not proposing that) but maybe they are not telling the truth entirely. 

Mark Lehman- Market values are very hard to assess. 

Lang- The simpler- the better. Slant it toward the landowner. Lehman- They don’t get a lease agreement to offset this. 

Daily- Is this Property Value Guarantee going to move into other counties? How will this guarantee affect them. Ask Andy B? this is a county ordinance. ( I guess this is because these solar farms are near the county line) 

Next sections- Ownership changes of the solar company they have to notify. 

Three things: Conditional use and zoning use and construction halted- have expirations. Trying to match this with other similar construction projects in zoning and planning ordinance. 

They will have 2 years from the time it was approved to time they get started.  

Open PUBLIC Discussion 9:35 PM

Emily Hartman- She has the Ball State Study 2004-26 ?

The longest time periodic tested was 5 years- common for many. She showed the different aspects of the study. Also pointed out some flaws.

Control group was 2-4 miles. Average 3 miles

Over 3 Mg Watts has detrimental effect.  Most under 5 MG W. Some were 20, 50, and 152 and 200 MgW. Siting on or near brownfields would be encouraged. There should be serious considerations for seeking size conformity to compare. No lawsuits with counties that included Property value guarantees so far. Kosciusko county with  2 mile limit  since 2018- no lawsuits.

She ended with- Common sense is in the room tonight and I hope we listen to him. 

Josh Holland- Family is another F word- Consider families.Talked about Commissioners and council getting together with Conservancy District and Brownfield etc. 

Brandon Lang- Thinks 120 days to start is too short. Max benefit with minimum impact.

Close Public Discussion 9:50 PM

Daily will send out some of the more contentious items to get a feel for setbacks etc. from Board. 

Daily wants another special meeting Oct 14 to be advertised. OK

Monday Sept 28 is regular PC Meeting. 

Meeting adjourned at 9:55 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township