Grandview Indiana Lawsuit Update 11-9-23
To anyone that is not familiar with the Grandview Lawsuit, it stemmed from a 2019 Special Zoning Exemption for a Solar Project that was organized by a company out of California by the name of Orion.
They had already received a tax abatement for a solar project in the Eastern Part of Spencer County just north of Troy Indiana.
They also spent 3 years, from 2016 to 2019 promising farmers all kinds of free $$$$ to sign leases within two miles of the Town of Grandview.
Indiana does have an Extra Territorial Jurisdiction – Allowing Indiana Municipalities Jurisdiction Over County Property through a specific process involving a joint effort between officials from the Municipality and the County where the subject property is located.
However, the County legislative body must approve the plan and the Municipality’s ETJ over the subject property. In addition to the County’s approval, the Municipality’s plan commission must file a description or map defining the limits of the subject property with the County before it can take action on the property.
Since the Town of Grandview has never gone through the appropriate steps to obtain the legal Extra Territorial Jurisdiction, they did not have a legal right to approve any construction outside of the towns corporate limits.
Unfortunately, it seems the Grandview Town Council, John G. Wetherrill either did not know this information, in spite of working for Spencer County on Zoning regulations for many years, as well as being the attorney for the Town of Grandview, or simply didn’t care.
Either way, he seemed excited at the aspect of having an second Commercial Solar Project in Spencer County and did not object to Grandview telling Orion it would be okay for them to build a Solar Project outside the town limits.
But John was not alone. There were at least SEVEN attorneys involved in this solar project that was initially approved in December of 2019, over the objections of local residents.
Fast forward to 2023 and a miracle happened. Apparently some unknown individual actually looked at the township or county ordinances and discovered the absence of any legal authority allowing Grandview to authorize construction of any type, on county land.
As a result of that information, the Town Board and BZA voted not to approve the final requirement allowing the Construction of this Commercial Solar Development outside their corporate limits.
In the meantime, a new solar developer from Washington D.C. names SolSystems, purchased this project from Orion.
When the owner of SolSystems, Yuri Horwitz discovered the town was not going to approve the final aspect needed for the construction, he filed a $30 million lawsuit against the town, trying to FORCE them to allow him to build this project outside of their corporate limits.
There have also been (hearsay) comments along the lines stating that since he is so wealthy, he can do what ever he wants.
I don’t know if this attitude of “doing whatever he wants” is a result of his wealth or could it be from his “connections, especially since he is on video stating, “Mafia is not what you think it is. You sit down with them and there totally………., I mean you wouldn’t know it all the time. That was my experience.”
Either way, he seems determined to force or bribe the town into allowing him to build this project, regardless if the zoning allows it or not.
That is why the local residents from Spencer County have hired their own attorney to fight for their legal rights in this case.
- The county doesn’t want to fight against the town.
- The Town wants as much money as they can get, but there are “some” board members that “seem” to care more about the safety of the residents, more then the money.
- The New Town Attorney seems to not want to fight or stand up against anyone.
- The Out of County Attorney Representing the Towns Insurance Carrier doesn’t seem to be willing to communicate with anyone outside of the town boards, not even other attorneys.
Therefore, in order to protect our health, land, homes and family, we are looking for your help to pay attorney fees.
I personally have already put up $5,000 in attorney fees. Another Neighbor has paid close to $2,000 and we have others willing to put up “some” money, but we still need YOUR HELP.
So, please check out our GIVE SEND GO site at the bottom of this article and make what ever type of donation you can afford.
Remember, if rich and/or connected solar developers can get away with building these commercial projects on Agricultural land, without legal zoning approval, NO ONE in this ENTIRE COUNTRY is SAFE.
This type of illegal construction opens the door for all types of commercial and Industrial projects to be built next door to residential homes and spewing all types of toxic waste, noise and air pollution, or any other dangerous heath issues where families get to watch their entire investment of time, money and dreams go down the tubes.
And there is no point in moving somewhere else, because people have already REFUSED to move into this area, even when FREE HOMES and LAND was offered to them, because they didn’t want to live near Industrial Solar Projects.
And even if we could give our home away and afford to move somewhere else, there is no written guaranty the same type of thing would happen somewhere else.
https://www.givesendgo.com/SaveFarmlandStopSolar