St. Joe County Counsel passes solar amendments and votes down moratorium

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Tuesday night packed the chambers ahead of a four-hour county council meeting with multiple solar resolutions on the agenda.

Ahead of the meeting, protestors against bringing solar farms to North Liberty near Potato Creek lined the streets.

Many of them took the podium during nearly three hours of public comment from both sides.

In the end the council voted against a moratorium that would have put a pause on solar projects across the county for the next year, 5-4.

All Republicans voted in favor of the moratorium except Dan Schaetzle.

Earlier in the evening all nine council members voted to pass amendments brought forward by the area planning committee that will require development standards, public hearings, and a number of setbacks on solar projects.

Those will go into effect immediately, except for projects that were already filed ahead of the vote.

Many on both sides agreeing on the restrictions, while some against the farms said they are not enough.

A resolution that would add more restrictions will move forward to the area planning committee and then come back to the council.