Huntingburg Zoning Board Unanimously Denies Crossvine Solar Appeal, Upholding City

Crossvine Solar One LLC's bid to revive a stalled commercial solar project near Huntingburg ended in a unanimous defeat Tuesday night, when the city's Board of Zoning Appeals ruled the company's development plan had legally expired after no construction broke ground on the site within the required two-year window.

The hearing, which stretched more than two hours on March 11, centered on a fundamental dispute over what counts as construction. Crossvine's attorney, Douglas Everette, argued the company had satisfied the deadline through more than $75 million in off-site procurement, manufacturing, and assembly of solar equipment. "Construction can occur off-site," Everette told the board. "We don't want a crew here for four years putting in bolts to make each panel. It's just disruptive to the public. It creates a lot of noise, dust, traffic."

The city drew a sharper line. Planning and Zoning Administrator Paul Lake, who had issued the original December 2025 expiration ruling, testified that he personally visited the project site and observed no construction activity. Lake also told the board that as of December 2, 2025, Crossvine had never obtained an Improvement Location Permit, a required step under Huntingburg's commercial solar permitting process.

The timeline is straightforward under the city's Unified Development Ordinance: Crossvine's development plan was approved on August 7, 2023, giving the company exactly two years to secure permits and begin construction. That deadline passed on August 7, 2025, with the field untouched.

Neighbors who live near the proposed site reinforced Lake's account. Korinne Whitehead, who lives across from the land in question, told the board: "I have actively stared out my front door at that field for the past 10 years. And within the past two years, within the timeline, I have seen absolutely zero construction."

The project covers land within Huntingburg's extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction, meaning it sits outside city limits but remains subject to city zoning authority. The board also reviewed a city moratorium, adopted last November, that blocks new or revised commercial solar development plans from moving forward.

Mayor Neil Elkins, speaking after the decision, acknowledged the complexity of competing interests but defended the board's obligation to apply the ordinance consistently. "I can understand that they don't want that in their neighborhoods but, same thing with solar, same thing with home building, everything else we gotta follow our own development ordinance and decisions we make need to be impartial," Elkins said. "They have property rights too. It's a situation where not everybody is going to be happy in the end."

Crossvine Solar One, which is tied to AES Corporation, now has 30 days to appeal the board's decision to circuit court. According to reporting by WFIE, the company may also have the option to reapply for the original building permit that was in place at the time of the 2023 application, though the precise legal mechanics of that path remain unclear.