Apc - Regular Meeting

So I have to think that it was requested from that, but that doesn't mean anything.

I didn't know what all they had to do.

I remember the one on 16th, they had it done for a good while before they actually took the barricades down and let people drive across.

But they said originally they were going to tear the deck and all they had to do was resurface and it was going to be the end.

But if they got into it and found structural damage, you could be up to a year.

Oh, my God. But, like you say, I've heard that they got redecked, so that should mean that there's no... Yeah, it certainly has.

And right before school started. But I know, I mean, it wouldn't... Yeah, it's just the way it is.

I always forget when I'm coming back. I always remember going, obviously, because you hit the barricades, but...

It's been in pain. My oldest son, Lent Lee, lives in Chile.

And then so they, you know, they both go here and there. Samantha goes into Peru to the office. You can't get down through Lost Ridge, or I would do that, but you can't. So you gotta go all the way to Denver, or around the other way to Sinridge.

Today? Yeah, like last night and today. Yeah, I probably had that much water in the pool. You know, on that cover. You know, that's not a rain gate.

It's a lot of water.

Yeah. I don't know what we got. I really don't know what we got. We have a dump right at 1.6.

Now. Saturday. Saturday.

Saturday. I don't know. That's about my bakery.

That's where I went yesterday. Helen Piotr and I went to Lake Michigan and we hunted for stones. There were some really cool rocks there. These are pretty.

Were you in Lake Michigan or Stone, Indiana or did you go up there?

We went on up. We went on up to, we were around South Haven.

We were around South Haven, yeah. I'd take any one of those houses around that area.

I just don't want to pay the taxes.

I'd like to invite anybody that would like to have a time to speak during public comment to please come up. And this is my last call for the sign up sheet. We'll get started here in a couple of minutes.

Once we start the meeting, can you do it again so it's on live streaming?

So it's live streaming right now? Okay, great.

And then you get up there. It's that bridge that your kid would always want. He likes to hear it on his phone. He isn't doing anything but scribbling on it. So you don't want to get to bed.

She can't do those things? No.

Okay, I guess we'll get started. We're going to start out with our solar ordinance public hearing. There'll be a two-minute limit on speaking. And also, please keep your comments in line with what it's about. Okay, so what we're talking about, the only change through the solar ordinance was fapping the acreage. That is all that we are doing, and that's all we are discussing this evening is in relation to the acreage fap. So we have Chris Ensley first. Please keep your comments professional. Direct them to us, not one another.

Hi, Chris Ensley. Fred, I commend you for opening this ordinance but not for opening the ordinance whenever it was right across the road from your house if you took personal private or property rights to heart and you let it roll on without your opinion involving it and then it was discussed at commissioners meeting the job of the board and the commissioners are to be responsible for both protecting property owner rights and the health and safety of the public allowing these projects to continue actually accomplishing both I mean, we lose quite a few farm chemicals, turns to grass. The animals, everybody loves grass. The land will be better. If we follow the logic of the complaints of those opposed to solar installation, then we should also use half the acreage considered and converted for residential use. When it's everybody's for the farms, for the farmland, then let's stop building 100-acre house parcels. Farmers sell sunlight. Everybody says, oh, we got to keep a cropland. We got to keep a cropland. Farmers sell sunlight. Now we're going to sell sunlight as energy. Be green, be nice, be eco-friendly. And we're talking about setbacks with the acreage cap. If we set back for the farmer, let's set back for the landowners. No chicken coops on the property line. No gardens on the property line. No trees on the property line. Everybody's for the farm room.

Excuse me, but again, all those things are already done. Nothing about the setbacks or anything are changing. It's just the acreage.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kyron Sanders.

And I am here tonight to ask you guys to lower the cap to about 2,500 acres and for it to include the entire project, not just what is inside of 8th Bend. I, as well as many others, would actually prefer to see a moratorium on this. You guys have opened up this ordinance multiple times. It is clear that you also see issues with it. So it would not hurt to take a few extra months to give a thorough protective ordinance to the residents of this county. I would also like to remind you who this ordinance is meant to protect, and that is Miami County residents. In 2021, Savion sent an email to some county officials with some recommendations to change the draft because the language would cost them a couple hundred thousand dollars. I think that we should be worrying about the residents, not worrying about billion-dollar companies. Thank you.

essentially with 3500 acreage cabbage what we're trying to eliminate is oversaturation is that correct of miami county so that's great however that doesn't direct directly address the issue. When we talk about oversaturation in the county, 3500 sounds great, but that's not what's happening. The two projects proposed are in two townships right now. And so those two townships are going to be oversaturated, even if the entire county is not. Sorry. What I would propose instead is maybe limiting the acreage capage in townships. So if you want to stick with the 3500, that would be 250 acres per township. And then same along with Kyron. I would also look at maybe including all of it instead of just the fenced in areas because land use impacts do not just magically end at a fenced in line. Thank you.

Susan Furbus.

Thank you for this opportunity. And I'd like to explain how our family has been affected by Ranger Power since March of 2024. They came to my mother-in-law's residence with a lease and purchase agreement.

She was at the age of 95. We found about this on March 20th of 2024 and began corresponding with Ranger Power about not speaking with her, but to speak with the named people in the land is in a trust so all five of her children have a speak and what happens and this was um stressing her she did not want to take her farm land away from the farmer that's been taking good care of it for many years so because of the timeline i'm going to jump ahead here our concerns along with the acreage and i think it's a good thing of township acreage caps that you need to look at the setbacks. At the meeting they had in July, we spoke with a young man there, and I asked him, where do those setbacks start? Do they start at the fence? Do they start at the panel? And he quickly said, panel. I said, okay, are you talking about the edge of the panel? Are you talking about the post that touched the ground?

He didn't answer me, but his face told me it's supposed to touch the ground. Another concern, you guys are supposed to protect us. Um, I think the best way to do that is to take a pause.

Then you guys have a chance to learn more about solar industry. We've learned a lot. We've all learned a lot, trying to figure out what's best, but you guys have the power for yourself to learn more about the solar industry. So you're protecting Miami County residents for us now, for our children, our children's children.

that may have a mess to clean up in 47 years.

Jason with floor. Good evening.

Thanks for giving us some time to talk tonight. I'd like to request the Commission to ask residents to be present and take part in the ordinance process. Whether it is amending current ordinances or writing new ones, back in July when Commissioner Musselman proposed an acreage cap amendment, several of us had the opportunity to speak up. Some asked for a moratorium to be placed. One person asked if any residents could be part of the subcommittee. And there was no change really or any indication that that request was acknowledged. By ignoring or tuning out folks' requests, it makes these public hearings seem more performative than anything. There's nothing stopping you from having residents participate did you have anything you wanted to speak about what we're here tonight yeah so we set up you all set up a subcommittee for the acreage cat so i guess i was wondering if any local residents were asked to be a part of that subcommittee do you remember how that played out do you remember how that

this fight out at the last meeting?

Because we volunteered at the meeting for who to be on that meeting from the board. It was a community of input.

You didn't acknowledge it.

There was discussion about amongst the board who wanted to be on that committee.

Can Jason's time be paused for your session?

I'm not turning him off. I just asked the question.

Yeah, no, that's fine. I wasn't going to interrupt your question. But so I guess that was going back to it. So if the subcommittee a resident had requested if citizens residents could be on the subcommittee to take part and that wasn't answered so i guess i'm that is my point to this if we're going to amend an ordinance can us residents take part i wasn't aware of anybody coming to us directly and asking to be honest

That's all I have.

If that's asked at a meeting, I don't know, do then we follow up afterward? Is that procedure?

I guess you could. I mean, we're not going to be like a free for all. We have 20, 30 residents on a committee. Sure. We could set up some parameters. Yeah. I mean, you could show interest.

I think people have. Yeah. I don't think it's a lack of interest. The room's pretty full, right? So again, that question got brought up. So I guess that's where I'm at, is if the solar company is going to have a seat at the table, the residents should as well. So thank you.

They did not have a seat at the table. Angela Marburger.

I guess I'm just agreeing with everyone else.

I think it's important that the residents have a lot more input than maybe they've gotten. And I know Fred, you said, well, we've opened it up four times. Well, it's kind of funny. You know, we had heard they were sniffing around. I mean, they sniffed around, you know, to my husband, but we didn't really know anything until Ranger Power. invited us to a meeting the adjacent landowners we didn't know how far it had gotten so even though you say it's been brought up it's been brought up but maybe all these people haven't had a chance to have some input in it and i just think it's important that you guys think about citizens you know because we're the ones that are going to be affected

Well, every time the ordinance is opened up, every time the ordinance is opened up, we have a public meeting.

And I'm really glad to see all of you here and getting involved. But it shouldn't take something like this for you guys to want to get involved either. I mean, we need to put on a regular. This is directly affecting me.

I understand. You know, people are involved with their lives and they don't get so much involved in politics. And then you think when something's going to be adjoining your property, you should be notified. The county, how hard would it have been to notify all of us? Right.

You didn't know about it until you're public, until they had the whole thing. You can't say that you made it all public. Because a lot of people didn't know. But a lot of people didn't know, did they? But it's posted. How do you know? Well, that's an argument. I'm just saying.

You mentioned they were snooping around a few years ago. I didn't know.

I didn't know.

I don't know how long ago.

My husband passed in May 21st of 2025.

And they were talking to him like two, three months before he passed. That's the first we heard about it. Okay, well, that was a year before I knew.

It's, uh, see who's up next?

Jill Sharp. Jill Sharp.

Some things I want to address specific into this ordinance. First off, I want to speak on zoning. We have zoning for a reason. There's ag land, there's industrial sections. Industrial solar is not ag, that is commercial. And I keep hearing property rights, property rights, property rights. I'm getting to that. Property rights end, your property rights end where mine begin. Okay, you're crossing lines now when you're interfering with my livelihood, where we're reviewing our health safety and general welfare where several of you took an oath to abide by our ordinances and our comprehensive plan in regards to the ordinance on section 27 right there at the very beginning it states um active public applications who wrote this my time be paused as we're the change is part of this amendment i'm asking the question who wrote this the committee dropped it what committee the committee that no residents have been asked to sit on that one active public um applications strike that We want complete applications. Who in this room who sits on that committee has experience in industrial solar to write this and take that chance on behalf of the county?

These are our taxpayer dollars. Again, people have already mentioned and talked about the fencing. The acreage, we want to cap it no more than 2,000 acres.

The two are there. Township thing that Tori brought up is absolutely beneficial. There should be a cap of 5% in any place.

Thank you.

And last but not least, I want to mention, I tried to not get paused when you guys were refusing to answer my question. I want you to look at all of the people in this room. You've got maybe two people who are here in support of solar. The rest of you are not.

We are not in for it. The election comes and we're going to speak loud.

corporate america can i move this over here that might go up and down

I asked for the cap to be at zero for Anchorage until an amendment is approved or a moratorium is approved. I know it was requested at least one year. I'm going for two. Hopefully you'll meet us in the middle with that. At the time this ordinance was agreed on, we did not know near of what we know now about solar industry and its effects on

the health, safety, and general welfare.

And that is what you are to protect the citizens of Miami County.

Well, I have more to say, and of course you've done well by saying we can only talk about the CAF. And the binders were given to the commissioners from our attorney. I know you know that, I suggest you all Read that binder. It gives a lot of information about how these solar industries are not 100% truthful.

And it will not benefit us in the way that I think some think that it will.

Does that upset you, Lynette?

No. Does it upset you? We have Kayla Inslee. Good.

I appreciate the compromise on the acreage cap. I think that it still is limiting the rights of the property owners. So you can limit it and it reduces options for individuals in the future. I understand.

I just think that would be beneficial to keep in mind that it is a compromise that's all i have thank you yeah what did she say we couldn't hear something can you do you want to repeat yourself what she said i heard it if i say something incorrect here uh so she believes that the cap limits the rights of property owners

and that we should keep in mind um it'd be beneficial to keep in mind that the cap is a compromise in general did i summarize that we have ron breed it won't take me two minutes to say a moratorium it surely warned

Most of you don't know much more about this than we do. We can tell by our meetings that you refer to the lawyer because you don't know the answers either. So I'm just asking you to have a moratorium, study this thing like probably we have more than you because we're all interested.

And zoning. And zoning.

And one of you tell me, what is the solar company got to do with farming? Do you know, Fred?

No, you should ask the lawyer.

No, I didn't look at the lawyer. It was referred to on the first comment. They are harvesting sunlight.

electricity is sold as a commodity i'm not i'm you just ask the question and that is

That is what you base your idea on. I can't build a little beauty shop out in front of my house unless I get rezoned and that beauty shop will cut farmers' hair.

You asked what I had to do with farming. That's the best example I can give you.

And you've searched and searched and you can't find me.

I just answered your question.

does anybody else have any questions before we close your public hearing all right we're going to close go ahead and close uh we need a motion make a motion to close public hearing second all those in favor all right all those against or opposed public hearings closed we're going to call to order the

September 16th, 2026, Miami County Plan Commission. And we are going to change things around a little bit on the agenda this evening.

We are moving the solar ordinance recommendation up to the forefront right after roll call.

And we're going to do the unsafe building hearing down right after old business.

So first, we're going to call the meeting to order. And I'd ask Jamie if he will lead us in prayer in the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you would all stand. Everybody please stand.

Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for its many blessings. We just thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and hear all of the conversations. And we just ask that you be in this room with us. Please guide and direct our thoughts. And please just let all of our actions tonight be pleasing to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's your sayings, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Do we want to make a motion on changing the agenda?

Okay, Tim Allwine.

Here.

Dan Hunt.

Here.

Brad Fruit. Scarlett Grapes. Here. Brent Palmer. Brad Musselman.

Here.

Jamie Hopper.

Here.

Lynette Smith. Here. Greg Wilkinson. Courtney Schmidt. Hey, can I have a motion about rearranging the agenda?

I move that we change the agenda to order you said.

I'll second that. At this time, I ask the board if they have questions, comments or anything regarding the solar ordinance. We need to have a vote on it. Oh, a vote on the motion. I'm sorry. Vote. All those in favor of changing the agenda. Okay, aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? Okay, motion carries. Now, I'll ask, do any of you have questions or comments regarding the acreage path on the solar ordinance?

So, one thing, the

everybody's talking about a moratorium lowering the acreage cap all those things the one thing that you need to understand a moratorium is not going to affect the huckleberry line project it is not going to affect the ranger power project because they are far enough along in the process they the moratorium will not stop them is that correct

Huckleberry, it potentially could because they're outside their three-year window from when they filed their last application and they haven't filed an application for an improvement location. I don't know about Ranger Power because their application for the development plan would start that three-year window. I haven't seen that application, so I don't know if it was complete or not, but if it wasn't...

I'm going to start over.

There we go.

I'm going to start over.

So it might not affect, or moratorium could affect Huckleberry because they're likely past their three-year window when they filed for their developmental plan approval. So they have not filed for an improvement location permit yet. With Ranger Power, their three-year clock starts when they filed an application for their development plan approval. If they get outside that three-year window, though, later, it could come into effect on them. Now, ideally, a moratorium wouldn't stay in effect for three years, but at this point, until they get an application for an improvement location permit, because of how long this process takes, a new ordinance could affect them. It might not if they move quickly. But for right now, if we put a moratorium in place right now, assuming their application for the development plan review is complete, then it would not affect them for three years.

I guess we're in the process, Corey, because I know Ranger Power had applied for their development review, but they had some discrepancies. I wasn't at that committee meeting.

Yeah, so they have applied for their developmental plan review and they met. So that's already been reviewed.

And also something that I heard frequently was about having the cap for township versus the county as a whole.

There's no way to change the two projects that are

moving forward at this time we couldn't change what's happening with the two that are here i hope you understand that so even if we wanted to it's kind of a mute point and then there's really not much left over to do anything with as far as you know a large project coming in because of the data cap solar cap

I mean, I'm sorry, the acreage cap. I understand what you're saying.

I don't know if you understand what I was saying. So yes, Huckleberry and Ranger, if Huckleberry is not past their three years, same with this acreage cap, and correct me if I'm wrong, they would be grandfathered in, but their acreage would still go against this acre trap, am I correct?

That is correct.

So if we were to instill an acre trap on townships, then in Washington Township, if Ranger Power does go in and there are 1,100 acres, is that correct? Something like that, then that would be all that Washington Township could do. And so it's not a protection just for Washington or just for Union, it's for every town.

Yeah, I realize what you're saying. I just don't know if the... acreage cap is being met primarily with these two projects, I don't see.

Because the issue is oversaturation, which was my first question, is why are we doing the acreage cap oversaturation? So right now, Miami County as a whole may not be quote-unquote saturated, but Union Township and Washington Township will be. I understand. Even dispersion of solar, if we do have solar.

That's why I said the thing I said.

Okay.

Anybody else on the board have comments or questions or discussion?

Do they have questions?

I guess if there's no more discussion, we will go ahead and move forward with the vote.

We need to make a motion on the 7 to 3.5 or 3,500 acre cap.

Do you want to make a favorable recommendation, unfavorable recommendation, or no recommendation on what the proposal is?

I get a motion for one of the three.

And I ask one question.

If we don't put a cap on it, then, and we get these two, the way the ordinance stands right now, we could get another 1,000 or 2,000 acre farm, correct?

You could get several. That's correct.

I will make the motion. which motion to approve, send for approval for the 3,500 acre cap favorable recommendation.

I'll second that.

Okay.

All those in favor roll call.

Okay. Yes. Dan Hunt.

Yes.

Charlotte Graves? Yes. Fred Musselman?

Yes.

Jamie Hopper?

Yes.

Lynette Smith? Nay. Greg Wilkinson? Yes.

Thank you, guys. Yeah. Thank you.

Motion carries to send this to the Board of Commissioners. favorable recommendation good job we have approval of minutes

I make a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Okay. Staff report?

Yeah. Looking at the work that we did carry out in August, we issued 33 building permits which was down a little bit but of those 33 we had one commercial addition one demolition two dwellings one electric limit two fences one garage one greenhouse a lean-to two pool building one porch a remodel 17 roofs and two storage sheds um you don't have any ag permits requested that's an odd one that we don't have on the board for tonight uh we did close out four permits issued three split applications assigned three new addresses and issued four stop work orders revenue from permits that was brought in was four thousand four hundred and thirty eight dollars um we did not have any applications for uh variances a lot of those that bza heard last week were from months prior that had been applied we did have six contractors that registered Overall then, unsafe building-wise, we got hit with a lot. We got seven unsafe building complaints that came in. Four of those did turn into unsafe cases. I did issue one order for demolition, which you will hear tonight, and then did close two unsafe building cases, bringing our total to 47 active cases that we're working with right now.

And then I'll turn it over to Brooke to talk about violations. Absolutely.

during all during august five new complaints were received with four of those complaints resulting in active violation cases i was able to resolve eight existing cases bringing our current total of active violation cases to 130 which is a four percent increase from this time last year of the new complaints that we received four involved overgrown grass and weeds, while the fifth was somewhat outside of the usual scope of complaints that we received. This complaint included concerns about an unusually dark colored house, objectionable statues outside, landscaping, and a sign placed along the curb suggesting motorists slow down. During my initial inspection, I did not observe anything that appeared to be in violation of the county zoning ordinance, so no case was opened for this one. One violation paper was referred to the county attorney, while two violation cases with the attorney were resolved, bringing the total number of violation cases currently with our attorney to 28. A total of six violation fines were issued, totaling $575. One lien was placed for $100 due to an unpaid violation fine. We also received four violation fine payments, totaling $775 during the month. While generating revenue is not the purpose of code enforcement, collecting fines helps offset costs associated with enforcement efforts and returns funds to the county rather than leaving those costs entirely to the taxpayers. The court did award two judgments totaling $79,030 with no partial judgment payments received in August. Overall, we are showing steady progress as we work through our existing caseload while addressing as they arise.

Thank you. Any comments, questions? We have any committee reports at all?

I'll give a committee report after I do the APS report.

Yeah, so looking at our expenses for the month since I saw you last, nothing, actually we didn't have very many at all. We did have the truck in to get an oil change and tires rotated, paid out cell phone bills. And then the one thing that we did pay out was the fourth invoice for our comprehensive plan update. So that is in its final phases there, which is nice to see. And then we did have some attorney bills, just our normal type of things here. Looking at our budget, again, our budget, we carried over a large surplus for the comprehensive plan. So if I take that out, we've roughly spent 57 and a half percent of our budget so far for the year.

So we are healthy going into the last part of the calendar year. Yeah. Yeah.

So I have one committee report from comprehensive plan update. This is the update number four from Taylor Cypher Williams design group. So since the last update, the following task items were completed between June 27th through August 31st by the team. They updated the vision goals and strategies and maps for future land use and transportation based on public engagement phase two. summarized feedback from the second public meeting and open house that included materials prepared for and left on exhibit at the Miami County 4-H Fair in the 4-H building. They also summarized the second online survey and coordinated promotional materials and project website updates, created a formatted draft version of the strategic plan section of the comprehensive plan, say that 10 times fast, That included narratives, updated visioning, and implementation elements, including preliminary actions and metrics for each strategy. And they also prepared for and facilitated a third steering committee meeting on August 27th, which included a summary of the engagement from phase two action and metrics for the strategies and the strategy prioritization exercise. in short it's moving along well um we are i think we only have one more meeting uh and then we'd love to hopefully get that before you guys i mean we'll we'll have it in front of you guys so that you can review it but then uh i think we're aiming sometime around programs or potential adoption awesome any other committee or doubts

Okay, having done, we'll move on to old business.

Unsafe building case 20-23, Stonger Family Press.

Yeah, so just a quick update on this one. Nothing too long here, but if you remember this case, we did just, we've been working since, I think it was end of July and all of August, but that property has transferred to a new owner as the previous owner had alluded to. So that's all transferred. I believe the Auditor's Office finalized some last minute details today about that. And so we will be going out to that new property owner to get an action plan in place so that hopefully we can get things cleaned up.

So that's one step.

That's what it is. Yeah. Good, good. Okay. Okay.

Moving on to new business, we will hold the unsafe building public hearing now.

Is anyone here to speak about that? Unsafe building, Mildred Arnett, 2773 Eel River Cemetery Road in Peru. Anyone here to speak for or against that?

You can leave it open.

Okay.

You can leave the public hearing open right now. I'll do my presentation and then if there's any remonstrators they can speak to me afterwards.

Okay.

So, like I said, unsafe buildings case 93.

This is, the property owner is Mildred Ornette. If you just want to keep pace with me as I go, I have it on my laptop and then you can be looking too. You also have this presentation on your iPad that you want to follow along too. So the owner is Mildred Arnett. The property is located at 2773 North Eel River Cemetery Road. So just a timeline of events. October 30th of 2025, we did have a formal complaint lodged against the property, claiming there was a pool building that is dilapidated and falling down, and then also a potentially unsafe mobile home on the property. October 31 we did an informal inspection, we did note that there was trash and debris on the property and there was a building with a deteriorated roof that could be potentially unsafe so. November 18 we did send out a formal inspection request letter to the property owner December. 2025 through January, 2026, we had back and forth communication with the property owner, trying to get that schedule of the formal inspection date scheduled. And then February 27th of this year, we did complete a formal inspection. I was on scene and then also our building inspector and the health department was onsite as well. We did do a walkthrough of the mobile home that was noted in the complaint. We did not see any unsafe conditions. There were some health conditions that the health department was wrapping up there, but nothing on the mobile home. However, the whole building was deemed to be unsafe and the property owner at the time was unsure what they were going to do with that whole building. We did give them some time to figure that out and requested communication and a plan of action be submitted by April 1st. Did not hear anything back until June 2nd. The power of attorney called in the office to update us on that. Noted that they had a contractor come out and take a look at the building, but that contractor was pressed for time and couldn't do a full assessment. That contractor was supposed to be back out at a later date to evaluate further, but they didn't know when that was at the time. June 10th, didn't have a title search come back on the property. Still had not heard anything as of August 26th. So I did issue that unsaid building order to acknowledge due to that lack of communication.

And then you are here today for this hearing. That's a little bit of the timeline.

Yeah, here are the orders. So if you see on the left here are inspection requests and then the other two pictures in the middle and on the right are the unsaid building order.

Here is, if you're not familiar with this property, here's an overview of it on Eel River Cemetery Road.

It is the building in question that we're looking at is a 24 by 40 or roughly 960 square foot detached garage or pool building. You can see that here in this like peachy color in the back. So things that would make it impaired structural conditions that make it unsafe. So we did note that the building was collapsing in general. So the east wall was falling outward and the north wall also was falling outward. Roofing structures were missing, damaged, or rotting. Walls and wall structures were missing, damaged, and rotting. Just overall not weather tight and just in a blighted state in general.

So you'll see here that roof is completely gone on the building. Nothing really holding it together.

So here's a picture.

It's hard to tell in the pictures. I tried to get some angles to show that that wall was actually pulling away from the other framing members there, starting to separate in general.

Again, just another angle there trying to show the building.

You'll also see there's like a little caramel colored building right there beside it in very close proximity to this building. Number two then. The building is a fire hazard. So due to the rotting or damaged missing roofing and framing structures, that does deem it to be somewhat of a fire hazard. It's not weather tight. And then there is a trashing debris in and around the building that is in close proximity. We also have close proximity to adjacent properties. So it's roughly 67 feet from a building on the abutting property, so the neighbor's property. And then there... on this property if there's another structure within five feet. So I'm concerned that should something come up with a fire, that it's going to quickly spread to other buildings.

Again, you can see in this picture, there's quite a large amount of items in here that could catch fire. Then three, the building is a hazard to the public health.

So there's potential harbors for insects, rats, mice, snake, antler vermin. Trash and debris also promotes that. And then again, knowing that there's such close proximity to the neighboring properties and the other buildings um still brings in some public health concerns too before the building is a public nuisance so indiana code 36794.5 does find or outline that vacant or deteriorated structures like this one create a serious and substantial problem between the urban and

other areas and are considered public nuisances.

Again, public nuisance due to the potential harborage of insects, rats, mice, snakes, and vermin. You can see here I did measure out the distances to the other properties. The one that's concerning, again, here's the neighbor's property. This building is, here's the building in question. This is the neighbor's property is 65 feet.

The neighbor's building is roughly 67 feet from the one that I'm talking about. Number five, then the building is dangerous to a person or property.

Again, the impaired structural conditions, potential for a fire, health hazards, public nuisance, blighted structure, and then the close proximity to an adjacent property gave me reason to believe that it was dangerous. And then number six, work has commenced in an effort to comply with the order. I don't believe any work has been completed to demolish or to work on the building. I've not had any communication from the property owner or any substantial property interest since June 2nd. Number seven, then building has a negative effect on the property values or the quality of life of the surrounding areas. Again, Indiana Code 3679.5 does outline that The close proximity to neighboring properties increases the risk of fire, spread of potential insects and rodents, discourages neighbors from making improvements to the property. It discourages people from moving into neighborhoods, encourages people to move out of neighborhoods, and then vacant structures continue to deteriorate to a point that demolition is required, thereby decreasing available housing in a community and further contributing to the decline of the neighborhood. Eight then, the building requires provisions of services by local government in excess of the services required by ordinary properties. Again, multiple government departments are involved in this case, the health department and then our department as well. Also then just because of the impaired structural conditions, fire hazard, health hazard, public nuisance, and being dangerous to the person or property and being blighted, it does require these extra services. Number nine then, there's been a willful failure to comply with the order. Again, there's been no progress made since the demolition order that was issued on August 26th, so 22 days ago. and I've had no communication from the property owner or substantial property interest since June 2nd.

I was out there this morning. You can see here, there's a picture. Building is still standing.

I'm open to any questions or comments.

powers apparently felt like they were honestly going to move forward with it that's a hard one to judge um i mean they mentioned the con that they were going to have a contractor out to do a better evaluation but definitively saying yes we will have it down and i don't remember that or recall that being

You all should have some of these in your paperwork.

We'll go ahead and fill that out.

you you

So the unsafe building order is affirmed, but you didn't, only four voted to impose a civil penalty and nobody agreed on the amount, but no civil penalty is imposed.

You needed five to impose a civil penalty.

Okay. I will bring the continuous enforcement order to you next month for review and

I forgot to say that all seven voted to affirm, nobody voted to rescind or modify.

Just to make that clear. I move we close the public hearing. Second.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are moving on to some stormwater ordinance. For Ted. Good evening.

Jim Ted with Maiden County Economic Authority. I'd like to reintroduce Mary Atkins with West Lurie Engineering. If you remember at their last meeting, we brought a proposed wastewater ordinance to you for your consideration. There was some discussion by the planning commission that you wanted some amendments made to that. Mary went back and made those and has copies of them. I think, Corey, you may have already sent those out, but we think we got everything covered. that you wanted us to cover in the ordinance. Again, this ordinance is just specifically for RISM to manage stormwater that comes off of the buildings and stuff as more and more develops out there. So at this time, I guess the procedure would be to ask you to schedule a public hearing. uh at your next uh commission meeting uh so that you could then vote to favorably forward this or unfavorably forward it uh to the commissioners for adoption uh but mary's here to answer any questions you might have and uh i'll just explain that the paper that came around is the adjustments that we made so there was a discussion about

how variances would be handled, that those would come to this group to the commission rather than directly to commissioners. So that adjustment was made, and that's what's shown on this front and back is just changes for that variance process that we discussed before, so.

I'll just interject in here that I thought you captured all the different things that we had asked from last month, so I thought it was a good adjustment there.

Okay. Anybody else have any questions or comments about it?

We need to decide if you want to run it.

The next month is how successful it is.

Okay. I guess I need a public hearing.

I would move a public hearing next month for the stormwater ordinance. Okay, Mark.

On the right here, it says a denied variance may be appealed to the newly founded commissioner.

Would that be correct, or would it go to, I guess, so in our language, it's appealed to the court. So, no, since it's going to BCA. Oh, sorry.

My preference would be after BCA just had it go through court, but if we want to add an extra administrative review in the process.

We can make that adjustment before the public hearing, if that makes sense. And I apologize, I meant that the variances would go to the Board of Zoning Office. Yeah, I said they're office.

Thank you. That would be bad.

It seems more appropriate after a BZA decision to take it through court, because that's how normal variances happen through our zoning ordinance, and I would keep it consistent.

So the motion can be to hold a public hearing with the ordinance amended in that way.

Yeah.

Agreeable to that.

He's agreeable to that. Are you, Mr. Secretary? Yes. Okay. All those in favor? All right. Well, I don't have a hearing. Thanks. I think this one goes to you, Tor.

Yeah. One of the last things here, like I said, we'll be talking about this until the end of I think House Bill 1001, some of those mandated departmental changes. Just wanted to give you an updated timeline. So we're going to be working a lot of things in tandem as we finish out the comprehensive plan update. I was talking with the firm this week and part of that comprehensive plan update to finalize will be that they are going through our ordinances to identify anything that the updated comprehensive plan would encourage to be more in line, our ordinance is to be more in line with that updated comprehensive plan. So that'll be coming, I think, next meeting too. I think they're getting those drafted changes to me. But the other thing that they are going to be doing for us is the House Bill 1001 requires us to have a public hearing to discuss new residential development for the county that I have to then submit that public hearing, the minutes and the results from that to the state. So I believe we are looking at that public hearing to be in October as well, because we are quickly winding down the end of the year. So just a heads up there on that one.

There's nine questions that the state outlines that we have to discuss. So they'll be walking us through those questions.

So just a timeline update. Any questions for Corey? Okay. We'll open it up for public comment at this time.

If you'll please state your name and address.

I'm Mikayla Tubb. My address is 965 Cherry Lane. I just want to say that I find your comments to be very offensive about the citizens of the community finally getting involved especially when we are constantly met with backlash. Working class people were never meant to go to every single meeting all the time. We have families, we have jobs, we have other obligations. The past nine months, I and many others have been trying to make it easier for citizens to get involved in their local government. We've been doing the outreach that you guys are elected and appointed to do. I once again want to remind all of you that you work for us. So it'd be really nice if you listen.

Thanks. Thank you. I'm just going to do this. I'm up here.

Here I come. First time over here. I'm right just now. Oh my gosh. Can I fix it? Oh my gosh. Hi.

Hi.

My name is Michelle Chapman. I prefer not to say my address just because, you know, but I apologize for my delay. I got stuck behind all the tractors and the old town folk that like to visit us. But I am from White County. I'm a disabled veteran and I really felt the need to come over and speak to y'all because I lived here in Peru for a few years and I loved it here. Absolutely. I actually lived right down the street. And here's the thing that I felt the need to share with you. In being a disabled veteran, I survived three brain surgeries, spinal cord surgery. I've got more devices in me that I did not volunteer for. I've survived very hard to get where I am, just to physically be able to stand in front of you. and actually be able to speak. I wasn't able to speak very well for about six years.

Thank you for your service.

It's always weird for me to hear it. Anyway, the reason I felt the need to be here is because the whole solar panel, battery storage, all of that actually directly affected my family significantly at White County. Our childhood land that we have there is currently being completely encompassed in solar panels currently. When my grandmother was dying of dementia, our family was harassed by private equity. And during that process and after my third brain surgery, I began to learn what was happening. And it was really hard because I was fighting to stay alive, but then I didn't understand grandma was passing and all this stuff was happening and concurrently, It's not just like private equity knocks on the door and says, hey, would you like to sell your land? That's not what happens. They trespass because they want to get a feel for what's on your land and how much they can go knock on the door and offer you. It's not just one company. It's every company that you guys end up learning about later on. It's like one, two, three, four, a dozen, however many show up in front of all of you guys and then have you guys sign fund forms and then You know, all those harass every single landowner and property loaner and farmer, everyone. And they go out and they have all the, I'm going to call them minions. I don't know what to call them. They go out and they scout every single property that they want, regardless of whether someone's died. They don't care. And they don't care about us as much as they don't care about you. And I don't mean that disrespectfully. I'm coming here with respect. Okay. And you probably know that better than we know that. Okay. So. reason i'm saying that is because now that grandma's passed she passed on that land she passed in that home i'm going to try to get this because i i'm still a tough chick and i ain't going to cry in public so what i'm going to tell you is that now my grandpa will never sell that man ever because grandma died okay because you know that's different generation and i raised all the grandbabies saying great-grandma he still grows It still grows all, grows in cans. 88 years old out there at 4 a.m. Still works. Up at 4, at work by 7, goes home back in the garden and in by 5. I don't get it. I do not get them genes. I, I ask them all the time. Like what happened? Like, did I lose the lottery on the eldest granddaughter? I, why didn't I get that? Right. But what I will tell you is now right outside the front window, They are tearing up the entire farm, encompassing. When I say encompassing, this was grandpa's land. Now, 20 years ago, they built a factory right across the farm, right across the road here. They built a factory here. And when they did that, they needed to expand the power line right through. And grandpa graciously, heartily, told him kindly to get off of this farm. Then they came back again. It wasn't quite as kind, but the third time they said, you know what? We're going to come. We're going to take it through a minute domain. We're going to take it. So we have one of two options. It's 20, a little over 20 years ago. You can take what we're offering you or we're going to come and take it because we need to expand the power lines right through it because we have this company here and Mr. Microsoft, I call him, owns the land right on the other side of the road.

And I'm sharing this with you because you need to know. This is important. I drove all the way here to tell you this. So they gutted his land. And they were supposed to take 4.6 acres. They didn't. They took 5.6. It was his favorite land.

And they cut it in half. That was a little over 20 years ago. Now, he probably didn't know that he could have killed it. and held him up in court for two to three years, but he was a business owner, raising all of his grandbabies, so he didn't get much of a hard time. Out of all of us, he had all girls and one boy, and I'd like to think we've been tougher with boys, but maybe not. Now, after they gutted this land, here we are in 2026, and got Mr. Microsoft, gutted land, and all these solar panels that will now encase him.

Now, they're still going to come and knock on his door and harass him about what's to keep the county from saying, you know, we're just going to take it.

We're going to take it. Because now we have this factory, solar panels, and right down the road, you know what they're getting ready to approve?

Battery storage.

Battery storage. Now, when he lived on the lake and took all of us grandbabies who weren't a problem at all, on the lake and we went fishing and we learned how to fish and all that stuff. We did, we did all that. He said, I'm going to move off of the lake out to the country. Cause I want to raise my grandchildren in the country. And then my great grandchildren, we want to live out in the country. Now my wife through all those years, I never put her in home. I never could with the dementia. I kept my work. I had a quadruple bypass. I did all that. I kept my words. My wife would die in her room. I did it so I could have peace. There's no more peace anymore.

The roads are tore up.

All I hear every day is beep, beep, beep, beep. And my uncle was stage four COPD, lives in a plume of smoke and dust and everything else. And do you think that the rest of those days with my uncle and my grandfather are going to be peaceful? No. How long do you think it takes to put that many solar panels up? And guess what? It's going to go all the way to the pole.

We're going to take every inch, every single inch. Because then you're going to harvest the sun.

Now, if we go back 30 years, what kind of common sense would that be? That ain't common sense with country folk.

We're not Mr. Microsoft. We're from that generation. Every single one of you out there are old enough to know better. Just be the common sense of this. I know you are. Our family decimated. My grandpa will never have another sense of peace.

All he wants to go is be with his wife now. My grandpa. I'm the eldest granddaughter. If I didn't stay alive myself, what am I supposed to do?

Nobody's coming to save me. No one's coming to save him. When we look at you guys, and listen, I really, I really believe y'all are good people.

Put in a bad situation, signing a document that they forced you to sign.

I'm not going to come up here and yell at you. I have yelled at you.

But I know them. I went to church with them. High school with them. And they looked at me and said $35 million. If that data center was put next to me that they want to build over there, it would kill me. It would. EMF radiation would kill me. The medical stuff I have, it would. I can't be near that kind of stuff. So what you have to understand is the elderly and the disabled, some of this stuff will end their lives. It is bigger than whatever they say. It's not a big deal. It is. Take my number. I worked in medicine before I got sick. Pediatrics, primary care, that's what I did.

And then my body feels sometimes the fight comes in different places.

And when someone can look you in the eye and say $35 million is a great, great sacrifice for your life.

They've already lost their souls. And I really wanted to leave. I live right down the road because they're good people.

They're good people. They're just good people out here just fighting for their families and their grandchildren and their children. And they worked their entire life. 88 years they worked their whole life. They let their wife die on that land. It was the only thing they had left. The only piece they had left.

That's it. Ours is gone. It's done. It's done there. It's not done here. It's not done here. And this was my home too. I came here for school.

I drove by it. School's gone. That's so sad. But this was my home. And I loved this place too.

So please, I came here to share this. For some reason, I was called to come here and share it with you guys.

So please, God bless you guys truly.

Thank you.

Jill Sharp, Miami County, joining in the state of Alabama again. Okay, two questions I have. One on the Mildred Arnett thing, the condemned building there. Is she passed away?

Okay.

I thought I found her obituary online and you stated power of attorney, which ceases at death.

So I just wanted to verify that. Number two, this is for the attorney. Did you by chance have an opportunity to review this ordinance that was written for the solar cap?

Yes.

How do you feel about section 27, the purpose and intent as it relates to section 27.3.3 as they contradict one another?

In what way?

Well, off the bat, the first full sentence there on the purpose and intent states active public applications. 47.3.3 states complete applications.

Are those really contradictory? Wouldn't they both be active?

One's active in the process. One is complete and then approved.

Complete doesn't necessarily mean been approved. Complete just means filed and the requirements are complete.

i can change you to tell you the range of power and what i've already pulled up on them we have several items that are in progress and progress and progress so there's a difference right there and that defining those two you have complete and you have active i don't they are active they are complete i don't think the per the language and the purpose and intent actually defines

what we have to apply in the ordinance. It's the language down below that talks about complete. So I agree with you, that language of active, not great, but the rest of the ordinance that talks about, we're doing this based on the application that's completed, that would control.

Go ahead. Also in 27.3.2, it says upon the formal filing of an SFES,

What does formal mean? What is the definition of formal under this ordinance?

Written application?

That should be defined in the ordinance.

And I say all this because we have asked several times for representatives from the community to sit on this committee.

And I've lived here my entire life. This is my home.

And I can either work with this county to help this, or I will work against this county. And again, we do have legal representation. And as of today, that list continues to grow more and more every time. When you guys were presented with the information from the attorney on September 8th, we had 27 people at that time. We now have 44. That list will continue to grow. Another item within regards to the solar ordinance and where you guys are not listening, and I cannot stress the importance of this enough on behalf of the county, is the decommissioning. I mentioned it on September 8th. That is a huge issue. I have a Ranger Power contract with me right now. The decommissioning specifically states, and this contract is for 47 years. I brought it up to the commissioners. They are well aware of this. 47 years.

The decommissioning, they're going to sell off. They always do. It does not follow the next entity who purchases them. You do not have that protection in your ordinance. Who pays that bill? The landowner? That's who should be stuck with it. They're the ones who signed on the dotted line. Or the taxpayers, the county. Who is stuck with that bill? And what about inflation?

But is there something, is there wrong with something that I'm saying, asking these questions?

What? I tapped my papers on the table. I know. So again, what do we do with inflation?

what do we do with the ns entity who purchases them nobody can answer these questions guys our ordinance is terrible please open it up for a moratorium so we can better protect the county i'm not saying swish solar altogether protect the county and protect the people whom you have taken an oath to represent that's what we are asking for and mark last thing can i Your stance right now, I know I'm put here on the spot with this, but if you've taken a good look at that ordinance, do you think it is protecting the county, especially what I just mentioned in regards to decommissioning? And who's going to bear that ultimate cost?

I think you're asking me for a personal opinion, and that's not what I'm here for.

Okay, give me your legal opinion. Is the current ordinance protective of the county as it pertains to decommissioning?

I cannot recall the decommissioning part off the top of my head. Let's talk about it next month.

and i tell you right now it's not and it's a long record thank you any more public comment anybody else wish to speak

Hi, can I get a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

All those in favor? Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carries.

Show me one more time where the alphabet is.