Neighbors contest Nextera plan for operations yard near Chesterton; board weighs conditional permissions

Nextera Energy Transmission Mid-Atlantic representatives outlined plans for a 6,000-square-foot operations-and-maintenance warehouse and adjacent outdoor storage on a 15-acre parcel near 1050 North and Mineral Springs/Pearson Road, saying the site will store long-term spare poles and reels required for maintaining a nearby 345-kilovolt transmission line.

“We are a national transmission company,” said Sean Shortell, director of development for Nextera Energy Transmission Mid-Atlantic. “This is solely related to the operations and maintenance of an existing transmission line. We are not building solar. We are not building battery storage.”

The company told the board it has withdrawn a request to waive sidewalks and will include sidewalks in construction, intends to install visual screening, and expects limited day-to-day staffing. Shortell said spare poles and other components are delivered infrequently and typically remain on site until needed.

Nearby residents packed the hearing and described a different picture. Spencer Smith, who said he lives about one mile from the site, told the board he had “looked up your company” and voiced concerns about waterlogged fields, chemical leaching and an eight-foot fence at a busy intersection. “I don't want to look at whatever they're trying to build,” Smith said.

Other neighbors raised similar objections. Larry Wright, a local developer, said the area suffers from drainage problems and said the proposal would be “extremely unattractive” and better suited to non-residential locations. Several speakers said the parcel had long been farmland and questioned when it was rezoned to industrial.

Nextera’s project engineer responded that, based on drainage calculations provided to county staff, runoff from the proposed developed site would be less than the existing flow from row crops because the plan converts exposed field to lawn and includes culverts and other drainage measures. “Based on the calculations that we provided to the county already the runoff from this proposed site is actually going to be less water coming off of it than what comes off currently,” the engineer said.

County staff and the developer discussed several conditions the board could attach if it allowed outdoor storage or other variances: a county-approved road maintenance agreement for heavy deliveries, limits on delivery routes (restricted to 1050 North to State Road 149), solid fencing or screening around the fenced storage area, and perimeter landscaping with maintenance requirements.

Board members pressed the company on costs and alternatives. One commissioner cited staff figures estimating a public sanitary sewer extension at roughly $440,000 and noted the special-exception formula in county code that compares the cost of public sewer extension to on-site wastewater systems when deciding whether to allow a well/septic special exception.

Nextera representatives said the parcel was selected because it met the company’s needs for size, configuration and proximity to the transmission line and that the business unit proposing the project does not plan other energy development at the site. Shortell said the company had notified about 20 nearby landowners by postcard earlier in the process and planned further engagement.

Board members proposed multiple, interlocking conditions during the hearing: allow outdoor storage only if the developer installs a solid perimeter fence (no exposed chain link), adds landscaping around the fence and building, negotiates a county-approved road maintenance agreement specifying permitted delivery routes, and meets drainage and county engineering requirements. The transcript records motions and seconds to advance several of those measures, but it does not record a final roll-call vote on the variances before the meeting adjourned.

The board’s deliberations emphasized the balance the county must strike between the property’s industrial zoning and the intensely residential character of nearby parcels. The developer said it would work with local nurseries to install durable screening and would coordinate timing and routing for large equipment deliveries. The project remained under review at the hearing’s close, with further staff review and potential conditions expected before any final permits are issued.