Buying Land in Swift County, Minnesota

Zoning, septic, and shoreland: one Environmental Services office

Swift County Environmental Services (301 14th Street North / 1000 Industry Drive, Benson) administers the county's Zoning and Land Regulation Code -- a consolidated ordinance built by merging five previously separate land-use regulations with help from the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission -- alongside a 2014 SSTS ordinance governing septic system design and permitting (permit fee $125). The county's Zoning Administrator maintains the official zoning map both on file and through the Environmental Services Department's own webpage, and a Planning Commission handles conditional use, variance, and other zoning-relevant applications. Shoreland is managed as its own district consistent with the statewide Chapter 6120 minimums described on our Minnesota page.

The real story right now: wind, solar, and the fight over an ordinance

Swift County sits in one of Minnesota's most active wind-development corridors, and that reality has driven the county's most consequential land-use decision in recent memory. After county officials twice rejected calls for an outright moratorium on new wind and solar development, the Board of Commissioners adopted a new Wind, Solar, and Energy Storage Ordinance by a 4-1 vote on October 21, 2025, following a public hearing at Benson High School that drew roughly 105 attendees -- most voicing concerns about setbacks and other siting standards. The final ordinance increased turbine setbacks from residences using a rotor-size-based formula (larger rotors require greater setbacks), required decommissioning financial security set at five times a project's projected removal cost (excluding any salvage value as an offset), and set a 12-month deadline to complete decommissioning after a project ceases operation or is abandoned -- while carving out reduced requirements for smaller, noncommercial systems in response to public comment.

This isn't an abstract policy exercise: as of the ordinance's adoption, roughly 23,182 acres in Swift County were already under lease for wind projects and another 3,640 acres for solar, and Apex Clean Energy's proposed Junegrass Wind project (up to 88 turbines, roughly 400 megawatts) and a new Otter Tail Power/Missouri River Energy Services 345-kilovolt transmission line are both moving through planning in the western part of the county. We've written a dedicated page on what this means for a Swift County landowner -- whether you've been approached about a lease, are buying land already under lease, or are buying near a proposed project -- covering the setback and decommissioning specifics and what to verify before signing anything or closing on a purchase.