Dear Editor,
I oppose Frasier Solar.
On March 27, 2023, I received a letter from Open Road Renewables stating that solar was coming into my area. When I found out just how close, I was taken aback.
I felt it my due diligence to do as much research as possible and protect what is mine. What I found was frightening and nothing like what the developer had told me and the information they sent to me.
People are throwing around a statement about property rights. “We don’t want to tell people what they can or cannot do with their property” is the terminology used.
Well, that argument is only half true. You see, the other half of the property rights ideology belongs to those of us who are adjacent to the project.
Those of us who can kick a stone to the project. Those of us who pay the taxes. Those of us who built our homes in the beautiful countryside, to live out the rest of our days, who are now victims because of a few. What about those of us who will stand the chance to lose the value of our homes and properties?
To me, that is theft, and the developers are going to say whatever they need to make the $125,000,000 project work. This is something that everyone should think about.
So, I will ask this, where do the PROPERTY RIGHTS END for those who lease their land out for 40 years and where do the PROPERTY RIGHTS BEGIN for those of us who live adjacent and close to the project?
If you are going to use the “property rights” ideology, then do not forget the other half because we too have rights and we have lived before solar came about. I think and feel that our community is smart enough to know that Knox County is not fit for solar.
We are an agricultural county, and we should protect the very integrity of its beautiful countryside and keep our green spaces as such. I cannot think of ONE good reason why a large-scale solar project should be put on prime farmland in our community, but I can think of a great deal of reasons why it does not belong on prime farmland in our county.
Our elected officials should do the honorable thing and protect the rights of the many others who were not given a choice and are being highly impacted by a handful of those who made a choice to lease their land for solar.
Rhonda Noble
Mount Vernon, Ohio