Boone County planners review draft Energy Overlay to regulate large solar, wind and battery projects

Boone County planning staff presented an outline for an Energy Overlay District intended to regulate large commercial solar, wind and battery storage projects, prompting a lengthy discussion of siting, groundwater and farmland protections.

"The Energy Overlay District ... would require rezoning to the overlay while preserving the underlying zoning," Deborah Lazier, Boone County planning director, said as she walked the commission through the draft. "It would go through the plan commission for recommendation, and then the county commissioners would have to formally vote to put that overlay in place."

Why the draft matters: The outline sets a new multi-step approval path for utility-scale renewable energy — rezoning to a county-managed overlay, BZA review for a special exception, and a later development-plan review tied to permits. The draft divides solar into medium and large commercial…