Statewide — Representative Randy Frye says to keep an eye out for HB 1381: Commercial Wind and Solar Standards and Siting.
This bill would create a statewide default siting standards for both wind turbines and commercial solar energy systems (which are systems producing greater than 10 megawatts of energy. It would establish a uniform set of standards that will serve to foster investments in renewable energy throughout the state, but especially in rural Indiana, bringing hundreds of millions in capital investment and tens of millions in both tax payments and landowner payments to Indiana.
These statewide siting standards will serve as “backstops” to local zoning ordinances while still preserving a local government’s ability to issue permits and approve or deny a project on its merits as long as it, at a minimum, meets the new siting standards.
Many Indiana counties are opposing the bill because it gives decision-making to the state and ends county control of zoning. Franklin County is opposed to the bill. The Franklin County Commissioners recently passed a resolution for Local Control of Land Use, which opposes House Bill 1381 because it “allows wind and solar projects to be dictated by others living outside of the community.”
Currently, wind and solar projects have brought $6B in capital investments, $20M in annual land payments, $15M in annual tax revenue, and over 10K jobs to the state according to Rep. Frye.
