Elkhart County, Indiana (October 11, 2021) – Elkhart County Commissioners today voted to deny a rezoning request for the Elkhart County Solar Project which was expected to be built on 850 acres of land just south of Millersburg.
In September, the Board of Commissioners voted to table a decision on rezoning the land so that the petitioner (Savion, LLC), would have time to develop a suitable agreement that the Elkhart County Council would accept.
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, the Elkhart County Council accepted and approved the decommissioning Savion agreement in a unanimous decision. In the meeting, the Council’s financial consultant Todd Samuelson noted that the project’s financial impact would lower property taxes for residents. He estimated average homeowners in Benton Township would benefit from a $41 annual reduction in property taxes while farmers would see a per-acre reduction of 90 cents a year.
“Although Savion worked in good faith with county government and local citizens in the area around the proposed site, the Commissioners as a whole did not agree to approve the rezoning request,” said Frank Lucchese, Vice President of the Elkhart County Commissioners. “This was a difficult decision, but we will move on from here.”
According to Savion representative Sara Mills, the project would have created enough clean energy to run more than 16 thousand homes a year.
A PDF copy of this document can be downloaded here.