Dearborn County Planning Commission members considered an expanded clause designed to protect property values around large utility-scale solar farms at their hours-long special meeting on Monday.The rules as written would establ ish a program where solar developers would be forced to engage with property owners within 1,500 feet of a solar array when a sale is pending. The developer would have to pay for an assessment and, if the property owner can prove the array directly led to a drop in property value, the developer would be responsible for making up the difference.To qualify for the program, nearby properties would need to be owned at the time the developer gets approval to use the land for an array, a residential dwelling is located within 1,500 feet of the project boundary, and the property owner meets several verification requirements.WATCH: We break down how Dearborn County could protect property values around solar farms Dearborn Commission considers property value protections near solar arraysAt the meeting, Commissioner Russell Beiersdorfer called for the entire provision to be removed from the proposed ordinance, saying the document was already much larger than any other ordinance in town and it wasn't the Planning Commission's job to regulate property values."Forget this. This is terrible," Beiersdorfer said. "I think we should completely eliminate this because we're not evaluating what the properties are worth."When challenged by Bobby Rauen, who could live near a proposed 1,200-acre Linea Energy solar farm in Manchester, Beiersdorfer doubled down."Why is this board responsible for what property values are?" he asked Rauen."Because it's your job," Rauen responded.Rauen has argued it's the Planning Commission's duty to protect the well-being of property owners in the county through Zoning codes and regulations.Beiersdorfer's motion to cut the property value protections entirely failed in a 4-4-1 vote.Dearborn County Planning and Zoning Director Nicole Daily will rework the rules before the commission's next special meeting on the solar rules Oct. 14, and she expressed concern about how they would work in practice if property owners and solar developers disagree."How am I going to enforce it if they start fighting?" she asked.Commissioner Mark Lehmann also questioned the addition of a large section addressing potentially friendly property sales between family members if a solar farm happens to be nearby."If you're discounting for a family member so your family member can have the farm, is that because the solar farm is there, or because that's what you were going to do anyway?" he said, questioning how the rules would work in practice.The Dearborn County Commission tasked the Planning Commission with building more robust solar codes in February when they voted unanimously for a one-year moratorium on the developments.If you would like to read the property protection rules, they begin at the end of page 51 here: https://go.fliplink.me/view/31468551-BD01-4D94-B30C-D9AB0C3E0B5A ...read more read less