WRITTEN BY DAN SCHAETZLE
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Hello fellow citizens. I am Dan Schaetzle, St. Joseph County Councilman for the Granger
area. As St. Joe County’s commissioners and county council continue to focus on new economic activity, we are considering how to approach the solar industry. Two solar fields are established in St. Joe County (Granger and New Carlisle), and a third was approved by the council in 2023 by a 9-0 vote. This will be a smaller field along 933 in the northern part of the county. After touring the area in North Liberty and the area near New Carlisle that could be sites for future solar farms, I have come to different conclusions for the two locations and what I think is a workable plan.
Two weeks ago, after some time in the North Liberty area, I thought I was set on a county wide approach. I sent an email to Republican council members proposing 500 foot setbacks for all future solar construction, trees and mounding as buffering to conceal panels from homes and roads, a bond requirement for solar companies to return land to farmable once their solar contract is completed, the training of local fire departments to respond to solar fires at the expense of solar companies in the area, and other expectations. Other Republican council members have since trumpeted some of my ideas.
The reason I introduced these potential requirements to my fellow Republicans was to establish guidelines that would discourage the North Liberty project. Let me be clear. That project does not fit into the character of the area’s agricultural community – far from our cities and very close to a significant state park, Potato Creek State Park. If given the opportunity to vote that project up or down, I will vote it down.
Since laying out my proposed solar regulations, I have taken a tour of the amazing
progress near New Carlisle (the IEC area) on the GM/Samsung battery plant, AWS (Amazon) Data Center, and the nearby solar fields. It truly is awe inspiring to see how quickly and efficiently these companies are moving. This area is much different from rural North Liberty. It already had established industry even prior to the work that has been and continues to be done by GM/Samsung and AWS. While for more macroeconomic reasons I am not a fan of solar in general, an additional solar field in this area would not change the character of the community.
Therefore, I do not believe we should take a “one size fits all” approach. And in fact, you should be leery of a suggested two year moratorium as a way to stop future solar fields, especially in the North Liberty area. It may very well be up to two years before interested solar companies are ready to apply for permits and build. Elected officials who have declared their support for a two year moratorium are either blindly playing right into the hands of those who wish to establish solar in rural North Liberty or they are fully aware of the applicable timeline and are only playing politics.
Instead let’s set some sensible regulations and require a special use permit voted on by the county council for each project. While I was not in favor of a special use permit prior to my tour of the IEC, that experience changed my mind. In addition to the special use permit, we should require sensible setbacks, trees and mounding to conceal panels from at least homes and possibly roads, a bond requirement for solar companies to return land to farmable once their solar contract is completed, the training of local fire departments to respond to solar fires at the expense of solar companies in the area, and the replacement of farm tiles that prevent flooding as part of the installation process. We would also want to be sure that no home established prior to the installation of a solar farm has a solar field on more than two adjacent properties and that the solar company plants wildflowers and other native plants to propagate butterflies, bees, other insects, and birds in the area.
If we put these sensible regulations in place, the council and commissioners could say no to projects that greatly intrude on the character of a community (rural North Liberty) and still have the ability to say yes to a project that is a continuation of similar development in a specific area (the IEC).
Respectfully,
Dan Schaetzle
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It’s too late, Dan. You lost the trust of a lot of us with the rezoning of St. Joe Farms and lack of transparency. Cannot wait to vote you out.
“a bond requirement for solar companies to return land to farmable once their solar contract is completed,”
Can’t be done. The nasty chemicals those panels leech into the soil cannot be removed, especially if they are physically damaged like in a hailstorm. Worse yet, those chemicals can contaminate groundwater… We don’t really need another superfund site in this county.