At a Commission Meeting a few weeks ago, the Franklin County Commission voted unanimously to deny the Edwards Quarry Solar Project a Special Use Permit to build a floating solar array on an old quarry lake, north of Ottawa. As a result of that decision, a lawsuit has been filed in Franklin County District Court on behalf of Almeda and Jason Edwards against the Franklin County Commission. The Edwards are the owners of the property the quarry lake sits on and Jason was the one petitioning for a Special Use Permit.
The suit states that the decision to deny the permit was unlawful as it was “”unduly influenced by rumors, unduly influenced by “tyranny of the fringe groups” pushing theories and lack of solid credence; concerns about precedence and created error in the weighting of the evidence by both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners”. It goes on to state that Jason Edwards performed all the relevant research, using experts in each field, over a three year period, and presented all the evidence asked for by the Commission.
No court date has been set on the suit. Expect to hear much more about this issue in the coming weeks.
