By DAVE SCHULTZ
The Wells County Area Plan Commission wants to know what county residents think about solar energy, and the APC is extending a survey to that end through April 23.
The APC, in preparing for Vision 2035, the update of the county’s comprehensive plan, has taken two different surveys on solar energy. One was a simple yes or no question on whether the individual supported solar energy in Wells County. The second one was more stratified, asking an overall question about solar energy and then breaking it down to household, business, and solar farm applications.
While approximately 70 percent of people were in favor of solar energy in the first survey, the results were rather mixed in the second survey. When it came to the topic of generating energy for utility distribution in the second survey, approximately 70 percent of the respondents were against it. They were for solar energy for individual households and for businesses, however.
Two other things: The second survey was only availble on the Facebook social media platform, and it had approximately 200 more respondents than the first one did — approximately 900 as opposed to 700 in the first survey.
Also, the second survey was not discussed in an APC meeting but was produced by the APC’s staff to clarify where people stood on the issue.
When the APC met Thursday night, commission members — particularly Tyson Brooks and Melissa Woodworth — felt they were getting mixed messages. They were also leery in putting a lot of faith in a survey that was available on only one platform — Facebook.
A county’s comprehensive plan — which, as noted, is being called Vision 2035 because it is expected to be good for at least 13 more years — is not an ordinance or a set of regulations. It is a set of recommendations that will provide a guide for planners and government leaders going forward. The term Mike Lautzenheiser, executive director of the APC, uses that those making decisions should be “paying reasonable regard” to the plan.
Solar energy, Lautzenheiser said in an interview Friday afternoon, is a “hot button” issue now and could produce more heat in the future. “It will become more of a hot button item if a project actually does come forward,” he said.
No paper version of the survey will be available, but it will now be online at the county’s website, wellscounty.org, and on the APC’s page at that address.
The responses of anyone who participated in the second survey on Facebook have already been logged and those people cannot participate in the new survey.
daves@news-banner.com
