The Starke County Commissioners made a decision on rezoning several parcels of land to agriculture to pave the way for the installation of solar panels in and around the Bass Lake area.
The recommendation from the Starke County Planning Commission was to approve several parcels owned by the Bope and Kolish families. Those parcels would move the zoning from local business to agricultural and residential to agriculture. The acreage is located west of U.S. 35 south of County Road 600 S. in Knox, south of County Road 800 S. in Monterey and on east side of U.S. 35 at 800 S.
The Planning Commission members did not recommend parcels owned by the Welker and Swanson families, as the major concern from Bass Lake residents was the proximity of the installation of solar panels to Bass Lake itself. Since that initial recommendation, some adjustments were made to the Welker and Swanson acreage to eliminate some of the proposed rezoning area closest to the lake. The Swanson property is located south of Bass Lake west of 700 E. The Welker property is north of the Swanson property west of 700 E. near Bass Lake.
Chris Shelmon, an attorney for the project, said all of the paperwork was in order for the commissioners to consider all parcels, but County Attorney Marty Lucas said there was a discrepancy in parcel information on the Swanson proposal so that was tabled until all of that information was reviewed and corrected. That would be considered at the next commissioner’s meeting.
The commissioners separately unanimously approved the rest of the rezoning requests. With the Welker property, the rezoning was approved subject to representation regarding no panels installed on the northwest of the ditch on the parcel proposed.
Shelman added that the developer, Starke Solar LLC, is exploring the possibility of pumping water from existing irrigation wells into the lake. There are stringent environmental regulations with IDEM and DNR along with federal regulations concerning that action, but that is one of the discussion points brought up with the Bass Lake Property Owners Association that will be investigated more in the future.
