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Residents urge moratorium, raise property and environmental concerns over proposed solar and quarry projects
Summary
Multiple residents spoke against large-scale solar and a possible rock quarry, saying utility-scale projects could lower property values, harm wildlife and water resources, and benefit outside investors; one speaker formally requested a temporary moratorium to allow planning and zoning review.
Several Crawford County residents used the commission’s public-comment period to urge caution on proposed utility-scale energy and extraction projects.
Danny Childers, who said his 17-acre property would be nearly surrounded by a proposed solar development, told commissioners the project would harm his property’s resale value and local wildlife habitat. "If they build this project, there isn't anybody that wants to buy my property," Childers said, adding that the project threatened nearby Deer Creek and local beaver and deer habitat. He asked commissioners to visit his property.
Eddie Weber described earlier negotiations on a solar project near Cherokee and said developers made contract promises that residents later had to renegotiate; he warned that outside corporate interests would replace local farmers as demand for available farmland rises. Weber also raised a separate report of a prospective rock quarry (Section 24, Sheridan East), asked that county staff add the quarry to the review list, and suggested the zoning process should be used if an application appears.
Philip McNew, who lives directly across the county road from the proposed quarry site, said blasting, truck traffic and loss of usable land would permanently damage nearby homes and farms. "If you withdraw a 1-mile radius around this proposed quarry you've got a housing development that that would affect," McNew said.
Speaker 10 asked commissioners to adopt a temporary moratorium on wind and solar development long enough for planning and zoning to finish new comprehensive-plan language and to allow public review. County commissioners and staff responded that moratorium requests are understood to be temporary measures to allow planning staff to finish language and that zoning and planning processes are the proper venues for project reviews.
No formal moratorium vote occurred at the meeting; commissioners said they would add the quarry matter to a review list and that any formal applications would go through planning and zoning.
