By Steven Spencer
The Jersey County Board approved updates and revisions to the Solar Energy Ordinance during the county officials report portion of the Tuesday, May 9, board meeting.
A recent public act requires counties to follow state guidelines which are different than the guidelines in the Jersey County solar ordinance.
A lot of the changes made to the county ordinance included language and phrasing, county officials said, but the biggest change was structure setback requirements.
Jersey’s 300 foot setback from any subdivision was changed to no setback from any subdivision. The 200 foot setback from non-participating residences was lowered to 150 feet, and boundary lines of non-participating residents was lowered from 75 feet to 50 feet.
The board reluctantly approved the revisions, with the state requiring the changes by June, and approved an added motion to have the state’s attorney draft a letter of nonsupport.
“I think we pretty much have to accept this, however, I would hope that we would consider having the states attorney draft something up like we did with the gun bill and all the other bills that the state government is trying to cram down our throats,” Vice Chairman Mark Wagner said.
It was also noted during the meeting that the solar farm currently going in will have to follow the guidelines of the original county ordinance since it was approved and underway before the public act.
