Special judge sets bench trial date in lawsuit over solar farm

Members of the public attend a Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals hearing in February where an application for the proposed Carina Solar farm was rejected. In a separate hearing for zoning on the portion of the solar farm in Columbus, the city zoning board approved the application. Separate lawsuits that may determine the fate of the project followed.

A special judge will decide whether plans for a proposed 1,880-acre solar farm partially in Columbus and partially in Bartholomew County may proceed.

Special Judge Matthew Bailey of Decatur County has set a bench trial date of Oct. 25 at 9 a.m. in Bartholomew Circuit Court to weigh claims from proponents and opponents of a solar farm proposed to be built by Carina Solar Inc., a division of Samsung C&T.

California-based Carina wants to build a solar farm on about 1,880 acres of land leased from more than two dozen local landowners. The proposed solar farm is in an area generally south of County Road 100S, west of County Road 525E, east of South Gladstone Avenue and north of County Road 400S in Columbus Township.

While dozens of landowners agreed to lease their land for the solar farm project, dozens also opposed its development. After packed public hearings just days apart before the Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals and the Columbus BZA in February, the county board denied the application on roughly 1,100 acres, but the city board approved the application on about 800 acres.

The split decisions resulted in separate legal challenges.

Carina Solar claimed in its suit that the county BZA’s denial of an application for a conditional use permit to build the farm “is, among other things, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with the law … and unsupported by substantial evidence.” Carina asks the court to “enter an order reversing the BZA’s decision and directing the BZA to approve” its application.

Meanwhile, a group of 29 local landowners who object to the project and an organization called Sunny Horizons LLC sued the Columbus BZA, asserting its ruling approving the application is “arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence, not in accordance with the law, in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority or limitations … and without observance of procedure required by law.”

The landowners also ask the court to reverse the city BZA’s decision approving the project on the portion of it in city zoning jurisdiction.

Bailey ordered the suits consolidated into a single case earlier this month. He found that under Indiana Trial Rules, consolidating the cases “is appropriate and would lead to a more orderly and economical resolution of both disputes that concern the same overall project.”

Bailey was assigned to preside in the first case after court records show that “all the Bartholomew County Judges have a conflict of interest in this cause.”

Separately, another proposed solar farm announced earlier this month that it also will seek zoning approval to build a commercial solar energy system in Bartholomew County.

Swallowtail Solar LLC and its parent company Arevon Energy Inc. said they have filed an application with county planning officials that would start the process of securing permits to build a 200-megawatt commercial solar energy system across 21 privately owned properties in Clay and Flat Rock townships.

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As of Wednesday, Swallowtail’s application had not been scheduled for a hearing before the Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a reference to Sunny Horizons LLC.

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