Wind and Solar Leasing in DeKalb County, Indiana

Commercial solar development on DeKalb County farmland has been genuinely contested since 2021 -- not a quiet rezoning, but a moratorium, a specific overlay ordinance, repeated amendments, and a large proposed project the county's own Plan Commission recommended against. Here's the documented history and what it means for land near a proposed or existing project.

This page covers what's specific to DeKalb County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

A moratorium first, then an ordinance -- and continued disputes since

DeKalb County's current solar rules trace back to May 2021, when County Commissioners imposed a 60-day moratorium on new commercial solar farm applications after reports surfaced that a private company was signing leases toward a roughly 1,600-acre solar project south of Butler. The stated purpose of that pause was to give the county time to actually study what a solar ordinance should require, rather than react to applications one at a time without a framework. That study process, running from spring through fall 2021, produced the county's Commercial Solar Energy Systems Overlay (CSESO) ordinance, adopted in October 2021.

That ordinance did not settle the question permanently. Setback distances between solar arrays and neighboring homes, property lines, and roads remained a live point of contention, and the County Board approved further amendments to the solar rules in October 2022 after renewed public debate -- residents at those meetings raised concerns about property values, and some pushed for larger setbacks than the ordinance provided. An amended version of the ordinance has since required a minimum 100-foot setback from property lines or rights-of-way, with solar panel components required to sit at least 300 feet from the nearest wall of an occupied structure -- specific numbers worth confirming as current directly with the county's Department of Development Services, given how much this ordinance has already changed since 2021.

The projects that made this a real, not theoretical, fight

This regulatory back-and-forth reflects real projects seeking real acreage, not abstract policy debate. A 55-acre solar array was built along the west side of I-69 in Auburn under the 2021 ordinance. A roughly 1,250-acre project was proposed near the Steel Dynamics steel plant in Butler. And the largest and most contested proposal, Sculpin Solar -- a 180-megawatt project developed by EDF Renewables (with RWE later involved), spanning roughly 1,778.8 leased acres across 45 parcels held by seven landowners in Stafford and Wilmington Townships near Butler, with an annual output target of about 378.4 million kilowatt-hours and a planned December 2028 commercial-operation date -- went through a contentious October 2023 public hearing at which the DeKalb County Plan Commission ultimately gave it an unfavorable recommendation, with opponents citing lost farmland and potential flooding.

An unfavorable Plan Commission recommendation is not necessarily the end of a project in Indiana's zoning process -- it typically means the application proceeds to the county's legislative body (here, the Board of Commissioners) with a negative recommendation attached, which raises the practical bar for approval but doesn't categorically bar it, depending on the specific voting rules in the county's own UDO. Industry-tracking sites continued to list Sculpin Solar as an active project afterward; this research pass could not confirm whether it was ultimately approved, resubmitted, or abandoned, so its current status should be checked directly.

What this means if you're a landowner or buyer

If you own farmland in the Butler-Auburn area and are weighing a solar lease offer, know that DeKalb County's solar rules have changed more than once since 2021 and could well change again -- the setback distances, acreage limits, and approval process a developer describes to you today may not match what applied even two or three years ago, and a lease's own terms (not the ordinance) generally govern your specific obligations once signed. Confirm the current CSESO ordinance's exact requirements with the county before treating any developer's summary as authoritative.

If you're buying land near a proposed or existing solar site instead, ask directly whether any recorded solar-lease easement already runs with a specific parcel (check with the County Recorder), and separately ask the Department of Development Services whether a nearby proposed project like Sculpin Solar remains active, has been resubmitted, or has been formally withdrawn -- the county's own sustained public debate over these projects means status can change meaningfully between when a listing is written and when you close.

Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in DeKalb County, Indiana

A moratorium first, then an ordinance -- and continued disputes since

The projects that made this a real, not theoretical, fight

What this means if you're a landowner or buyer

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