DevelopOhio

After twice receiving approval from Granville City Council and winning one court appeal, Denison University’s plan to install solar panels on its Biological Reserve is still on hold, pending the outcome of another appeal, The Columbus Dispatch reports. The case will now head to the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals, after a group of residents living on Welsh Hills Road filed the latest appeal. The group previously filed an appeal with Licking County Common Pleas Court after “the village council upheld the zoning board’s initial approval for the project (see our March 11, 2015 blog post),” at which time Judge Thomas Marcelain “sent the matter back to council, ruling that the village hadn’t determined whether the project constituted commercial use,” according to the article. Council then voted that “the solar array did not constitute commercial use (see our February 1, 2016 blog post),” and in July 2016, Judge Marcelain upheld that decision. Denison Sustainability Coordinator Jeremy King said the university has addressed many of the group’s concerns, as “[t]he fence surrounding the array would be at least 250 feet away from residents’ property lines,” and the university has promised “to put up a ‘plant screen’ — a buffer of shrubs and evergreen trees — between the panels and nearby homes.”