Public hearing on wind, solar installations March 26 ahead of potential commissioners vote

The Portage County Commissioners will host a public hearing regarding certain wind and solar installations at 6:30 p.m. March 26 at the county Emergency Management Agency headquarters.

The hearing is a required step before the commissioners can consider any zoning resolution. If the feedback provided at the public hearing prompts them to do so, the commissioners will on April 2 consider enacting a zoning resolution restricting large and economically significant wind and solar farms from all or part of the eight townships that have passed their own zoning resolutions giving the commissioners authority to do so.

They’ve already approved one for Shalersville, which in 2025 passed a resolution codifying its anti-installation stance. After that, the commissioners expressed their desire to poll all the townships instead of holding multiple public hearings.

Large wind farms and large solar facilities are defined under state law as those that connect to the electrical grid and are designed to operate at 50 or more megawatts. Economically significant wind farms are designed to operate five to 50 megawatts.

The law defines large solar facilities as an electric generating plant that consists of solar panels and associated facilities with a single interconnection to the electric grid that is a major utility facility, meaning designed for or capable of operating at 50 megawatts or more.

To compare, a typical homeowner’s solar installation produces one to 10 kilowatts.
Since 2023, nine townships — Mantua, Shalersville, Charlestown, Hiram, Freedom, Randolph, Rootstown, Paris and Atwater — have passed resolutions authorizing the commissioners to restrict or prohibit such installations.

A draft resolution the commissioners circulated to township officials throughout the county last September cites health, safety and welfare concerns associated with such facilities. Large wind and solar farms pose “numerous potential impacts on users and property owners in the vicinity” and could impact property owners who wish to develop their land, the draft states. 

Former Ravenna Trustee Jim DiPaola emailed the commissioners in September 2025 that the township was updating its zoning code to include solar and wind farms. He informed the commissioners that township officials were “interested in participating in hearings pertaining to restrictions and updating our zoning code if needed.”

Nelson Township trustees had passed a temporary moratorium on all zoning permits for windmill and solar projects in 2022, extended it to Aug. 31, 2023, and stated in a June 21, 2023, letter to the commissioners their intent to restrict such installations “until there is enough information available on the solar and wind energy programs to safely navigate the benefits or drawbacks.”

Not everyone is actively against large or economically significant installations. Franklin Township trustees support them, Windham trustees declined to consider a resolution and, without a zoning code, Deerfield can’t regulate any wind or solar farms, large or small.

Farmers should have the right to use their own land as they wish, says the Kent Environmental Council, which is rallying people to attend the public hearing to oppose the measure. They also say Ohio Edison is the only entity that benefits from a ban on locally sourced energy.

County Commissioner Mike Tinlin wondered what is done with wind turbines that have exceeded their life span.

“If you replace them, what do you do with the big turbines? Is that a problem for our soil if they bury them? Does it generate a problem?” he asked.

Tinlin said he is encouraged that state officials have looked into recycling wind turbines, but said there’s “bad mojo” coming off solar panels.

“It radiates energy from it,” he said. “Does that affect ground and soil that they're buried in?”

In a previous interview with The Portager, Todd Peetz, director of the Portage County Regional Planning Commission, said most concerns about solar and wind farms are not based on evidence.

“If there were really big health and safety concerns with wind farms and/or solar, we would hear all about it and we’d know about it,” he said.

Tinlin also said he’s aware of “a lot of southern counties” that have allowed people to erect wind turbines on land that’s not being farmed anymore.

“People love it, and they want to put them up,” he said. “And I guess I'm asking myself, what gives me the right to tell them they can't? Unless it's a public safety or health issue, I'm not really one to stand in the way of someone doing what they want to their own property. That's how I feel about it.”

County Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett is proceeding with caution.

“It could bring an economic advantage to the county, but I want to make sure farmland is preserved and property rights and quality of life. It’s a careful balance,” she said.

The EMA office is located at 2978 state Route 59 in Ravenna.