Tippecanoe board denies Rainbow Trout Solar special exception for 1,700-acre project in Shelby Township

The Tippecanoe County Area Board of Zoning Appeals on Aug. 27 denied Rainbow Trout Solar’s special-exception request for a 1,700.1‑acre, utility‑scale solar installation in Shelby Township. The board voted 4–3 after more than three hours of developer and staff presentations and several hours of public comment by landowners, farmers, environmental groups, labor representatives and students.

Area Plan Commission staff told the board the filing included a large technical package but that some implementation items—permits the county’s surveyor and highway director typically approve, and an executed power purchase agreement (PPA)—would only be finalized after a special‑exception approval. Amanda Esposito, APC staff, summarized the project as 1,700.1 acres (exclusive of flood‑plain land), about 120 MWAC of capacity, two separated arrays referred to in the submission as a north and a south section, a collector substation near an existing American Electric Power facility, a proposed 15‑foot‑wide evergreen buffer plus a 6‑foot agricultural‑style perimeter fence, internal gravel roads and a decommissioning plan with a posted surety estimate included in the submittal materials.

Developer and owner representatives said the project had been refined in response to staff feedback. Ryan Munnon of RTS Law, speaking for GeneX and RWE (the developer and the project owner, respectively), called the filing comprehensive and compliant with the Unified Zoning Ordinance’s special‑exception submission rules and said the design reduces impacts by increasing setbacks and reducing panel coverage. Wayne DeLong of GeneX and Mark Schuler of RWE described construction and operations plans, estimated local construction spending and jobs, a targeted operational life of roughly 35–40 years, and commitments to native seed mixes and pollinator habitat under arrays. RWE said the project would produce about 120 MWAC and that preliminary engineering included about 272,000 modules and 33 inverters (figures provided in the developer’s…