Huntingburg Council approves solar moratorium
The Huntingburg Council unanimously approved a moratorium on solar development within the city’s jurisdiction at Tuesday evening’s meeting.
The decision was met with applause from residents attending the meeting who oppose the AES Crossvine Solar project’s planned construction of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) along Holland Road Northeast. However, although the decision could affect about 262 acres of the project within the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, the BESS is not located in that area.
According to City Attorney Phil Schneider, the action only affects that part of any commercial solar project within the city’s planning and zoning jurisdiction.
Cities and towns that have planning and zoning may elect to exercise that authority within their corporate limits and up to two miles beyond their contiguous boundary — that area is known as their extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ), Schneider wrote in an email explaining the decision.
Huntingburg’s ETJ extends to County Road 800 on the south, County Road 500 on the West, Patoka Township line on the north, and County Road 100 (extended) on the east. You can view the areas in the image below.
At the request of resident Jason Heile, the city will review whether AES has met the permitting and construction requirements required under its approval of the Crossvine project. The portion of the project within the city’s EJT was approved in August of 2023, and according to the city’s unified development ordinance, that approval is void if permitting and construction do not begin within two years.
“If they have not met the two-year requirement, they are to be notified that their development plan has lapsed, and they’ll need to re-file,” Schneider explained.
With the moratorium approved Tuesday, the city won’t approve any new, revised, or refiled commercial solar electric generating development plans within the city and its ETJ until the council and the plan commission have an opportunity to review, revise and update the development standards for commercial solar projects.
“Essentially, this applies to any developer who seeks approval of a new or re-filed commercial solar development plan, until the standards are reviewed and revised, if deemed necessary,” Scheider explained.
This decision does not affect the portion of the solar project outside the city’s jurisdiction. The county has also been asked to take action to slow development, but has expressed concerns about doing so, given that the project is already underway.
CenterPoint Energy has begun construction of a substation near the BESS site, but aside from surveying, work on the solar project has not yet begun.
Residents and members of the Holland Town Council are asking officials to take action to stop the BESS from being constructed. The request is based on its proximity to all the Southwest Dubois County School Corporation schools and a large daycare, Hummingbird Daycare, in Holland. Holland officials have stated they don’t have the means to respond to a fire at the facility, nor conduct an evacuation and subsequent cleanup in the event of an emergency.
Holland Town Council Member John Kaltenbacher said he was surprised to find out about the BESS for the first time about three weeks ago. He said he was dumbfounded that the council had only learned about it recently.
“I think that is totally irresponsible of this company, AES Indiana,” he said.
He added that, as a retired U.S. Army veteran, he believed in the “what-if monster.” In light of that, he pointed to the airport departure path directly east of the project and noted that an aircraft incident could be devastating if it hit the BESS or solar field.
