New zoning codes aren’t a de facto ban on large-scale solar, commissioners insist
‘Compromise’ was the watchword as Tippecanoe County commissioners approve solar regulations that include acreage caps, larger setbacks. Solar advocates groan at the result.
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IT’S PRIMARY ELECTION DAY
The polls opened at 6 a.m. today and will be open until 6 p.m. for May 5 primary voting. In case you missed it last night, here’s a voter guide, including where to vote, who will be on ballots, candidate Q&As and what’s at stake in contested races.
NEW ZONING CODES AREN’T A DE FACTO BAN ON LARGE-SCALE SOLAR, COMMISSIONERS INSIST
Tippecanoe County commissioners rejected the idea that a rewrite of the county’s solar regulations – ones they unanimously approved Monday with new caps on the size of projects and increased distances panels and other components may be from neighboring property – amounted to a de facto ban on utility-scale solar in the county.
Commissioner Tracy Brown the new zoning codes, in the works since the county imposed a one-year moratorium in June 2025 to give a chance to get a better handle on massive projects, were a middle ground – and a new starting point.
“There will be people that walk out of this room that are elated of where we are right now, there’ll be people that will think that we should do more, and there’ll be people that think that we need to do less,” Brown said.
Brown had advocated for a 400-acre cap on projects, separated by a mile, after navigating through a proposed 1,700-acre Rainbow Trout Solar Project in western Tippecanoe County in 2025 that prompted a review of regulations the county developed at the start of the decade for projects of 10 acres or more.
Those limits were greeted by groans through the process, with solar advocates saying the county was essentially telling the industry it wasn’t interested.
“I have a very hard time believing you can’t take 400 acres – and multiple 400 acres across the county – and make electricity that benefits all of us,” Brown said. “To make that concrete formulation that it just doesn’t work, I believe that someone needs to sharpen their pencil. They need to come up with a way to make it work.”
Commissioner David Byers, a dairy farmer who said he cringed at any development that takes 40 acres of good ag ground, said he’d originally been in favor of an outright ban on large-scale solar projects.
“I was against this from the beginning, but I see this as a compromise,” Byers said. “Can it still happen? Yes. But we’re setting the parameters. … I don’t think we’re banning it.”
A string of people asking commissioners to reconsider the final product didn’t see it that way.
