The Starke County Planning Commission Technical Review Committee members met Monday morning to review the Commercial Solar Energy System submission from Hoosier Solar for the North Bend Township project and the Starke Central project.
The North Bend project is proposed in an area east of Bass Lake around Toto Road and State Road 23 and the Starke Central project in the area of 600 E. and 250 N. northeast of Knox. Both projects will be 1,250 acres apiece.
The documents submitted were reviewed with Engineer Consultant Bob Aloi who went over each point of the submissions with the committee as they pertain to the county’s ordinance. The points include permitting districts, setbacks, height restrictions, noise limits, landscape buffers including waivers – some of which were not signed at the time of the meeting but a letter was submitted stating that those were in the process of being acquired, monitoring and maintenance plans, drainage and erosion control, application permits, signage, preliminary array site plans, electrical code standards, wireless communication disturbance documentation, glare analysis, fencing and wiring, exterior lighting, certification of utility notification affidavit, Road Use and Maintenance Agreements, Decommissioning Agreements, flood plain, attorney fees, county engineer fees, adjacent land owner notification, and other points applicable to a Commercial Solar Energy System.
Aloi noted that all points met the requirements of the county’s ordinance for both projects and will be presented to the Starke County Planning Commission during their meeting Wednesday, October 9. The Road Use Agreement and the Decommissioning Agreement were previously signed by the commissioners. Three drainage boards have reviewed the plans submitted and approved them.
As for the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) ordinance, some of the language will be cleaned up regarding the definition of BESS projects, setbacks, and other items to make local requirements a bit stricter for Starke County’s needs. They discussed equipment needs for fire departments to successfully respond and to keep the public safe in case of an incident even though the modules are self contained. There are a lot of requirements in the ordinance that are along the same lines as the solar ordinance, but pertain specifically to BESS.
The ordinance will be reviewed again in a future meeting with a public hearing tentatively set for the Planning Commission in November.
