The DeWitt County Board Thursday night approved changes to its solar ordinances that have been worked on for the last few months.

Board Chair Terry Ferguson wanted to table the motion after it was sent back to the Regional Planning Commission last month. He says there's a lot to consider in this ordinance.

But Board members pushed back on the idea of further kicking the can down the road on the vote. Aaron Kammeyer pointed out that the RPC and the Zoning Board of Appeals have spent significant amounts of time on the ordinance review and changes and feels it's a vote of 'no confidence' in those bodies.

Ferguson argued pushing the ordinance proposals through would be a quick decision but Kammeyer did not agree with that assessment because of the time spent by the two zoning bodies on the review and modification.

Ferguson's proposal to table the changes failed and the Board took up the issues of the changes themselves. Much was made about ag land versus industrial land for solar development. State's Attorney Dan Markwell reminded the Board there was limited to no industrial land that could be developed in DeWitt County.

David Newberg wondered why in when the ordinances were written in 2019 they were just fine for that time and with interest in a solar farm from a developer in 2022, if we're changing the standards because all of a sudden, there is interest in the County as a development site.

Ferguson outlined the industrial areas of DeWitt County that could be developed and asked the Board to consider the fact you cannot eliminate legal entities by not giving them a place to go.

The changes to the code passed 6-4.

The Board also took up a lengthy discussion regarding the role of the Zoning Officer in the County. We'll have more on that next week on Regional Radio.