Energy company filed a lawsuit against Calcasieu Parish Police Jury about a solar farm project

CALCASIEU PARISH, La. - The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury is now being sued by an energy company over a massive solar farm proposal that was voted down last year.

Last November, the Calcasieu Parish Planning and Zoning Board rejected plans for a 4,000-acre solar farm to be built near Topsy and Gillis.

Aypa, the company behind the proposed Cajun Crescent Energy Center, says the decision was unfair and has asked a district court to overturn the denial.

Company officials say the facility would have brought in $87 million in local tax revenue over 30 years.

However, the project was met by pushback, including by State Rep. Brett Geymann. It was ultimately shut down in a 3-3 vote. Three members of the zoning board did not vote.

A lawsuit filed by the company claims the Calcasieu Zoning Board failed to uniformly apply zoning rules, failed to provide grounds for the denial, and failed to follow its voting procedures.

Aypa claims the parish previously approved four solar farms, but its application wasn’t given the same treatment as the others. The other four were approved before the set of ordinances governing solar energy in the parish was adopted in late 2022.

However, Calcasieu Director of Planning and Development Wes Crain says the project wasn’t guaranteed even if it met all the requirements of the parish.

Residents who spoke against the solar farm said it would bring down property values and should be built in an industrial area, not an agricultural one.

Two petitions against the project circulated prior to the zoning board’s decision - one garnering more than 1,000 signatures from across the U.S. and one with more than 600 Calcasieu residents.

Crain said nearly 70% of the proposed energy farm would touch residential properties and that the project would be among the highest of the state’s 19 solar projects in megawatts and total acreage.

Aypa says those statistics are misleading. The company said that there are only 43 occupied structures within 1,000 feet of the project and only 180 housing units within one mile.

Aypa says even with the opposition, the “parish fails to tie these signatures into any specific health, safety, and general welfare concern for denying the project.”

On July 24, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury discussed the lawsuit in executive session. Officials said in a statement that they will not comment on ongoing litigation.

7News reached out to Aypa late this afternoon, but we have not yet heard back.