Indiana County Lists Solar Projects Among 'Undesirable' Uses — SkimNews

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- Montgomery County, Indiana, classifies utility-scale solar projects as an "undesirable" land use on its official zoning list, a category that also includes "adult-oriented businesses."
- The county Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a 200-megawatt solar project on Sept. 28 after the developer's proposal came before them under that designation.
- The county's undesirables list pairs renewable energy infrastructure with junkyards and adult-oriented businesses, effectively treating a clean-power generator as a nuisance industry in zoning terms.
- The vote was unanimous, with no commissioner on record dissenting from the classification framework that framed solar as incompatible with community land-use standards.
Why it matters: By coding solar farms into the same zoning tier as adult businesses and junkyards, Montgomery County creates a higher procedural bar for any future utility-scale project in the jurisdiction, and a unanimous vote signals broad local hostility rather than a single-member objection that a developer could lobby around.
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