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Huron County holds public meeting on possible restrictions for large wind and solar projects
Summary
Commissioner Tom Dunlap opened a public meeting March 19 under ORC 303.58 to gather public comment on whether to designate parts of unincorporated Huron County as restricted areas for large wind and solar facilities. The board emphasized it would not act at this meeting and noted 17 of 19 townships have requested restrictions.
Commissioner Tom Dunlap opened a public meeting of the Huron County Board of Commissioners on March 19 to receive public comment about whether the county should designate portions of unincorporated Huron County as restricted areas for economically significant wind farms, large wind farms and large solar facilities under Ohio Revised Code sections 303.57–303.62.
"This is for the ORC 303.58 for the Wind and Solar restriction," Dunlap said as he explained the meeting was a public meeting, not a public hearing. He told attendees the board was waiving limits on the number of speakers for the single-topic meeting and also waiving the usual fifteen-minute limit per topic for today’s comments. He said the board would not make a decision at this meeting.
Dunlap summarized positions conveyed to the board by townships: 17 of the county’s 19 townships have passed resolutions asking the board to restrict large wind and/or solar developments; Lyme Township supports development; Wakeman Township prefers its own zoning and does not want county action. Dunlap also said the meeting would not revisit a completed large-wind project in Lyme, Sherman and Norwich Townships and that a proposed small solar field in New London Township was under local zoning and not part of this discussion.
The board recessed after a morning session and reconvened at 5:00 p.m. to resume public comment on the same topic; Dunlap reiterated the meeting was for public comment only and that speakers would be called in the order they signed in. The meeting record shows attendees listed both in favor of and opposed to proposed restrictions, but the transcript does not attribute substantive remarks to named public commenters in the record provided.
The board did not take a vote or adopt a resolution at the March 19 sessions; Commissioner James R. Morgan moved to adjourn at 5:32 p.m., and the motion carried by voice vote.
Next formal action on a restriction under ORC 303.57–303.62 would require a separate public process and any local resolution the board chooses to adopt would be recorded in a future meeting.
