Richland County residents will vote on May 5 on whether to overturn a ban on large-scale solar development that the county’s three Republican commissioners approved last July. The referendum, initiated by the grassroots group Richland County Citizens for Property Rights & Job Development, marks only the second time an Ohio county’s renewable energy restriction has been put to voters since the state’s 2021 law handed local officials unique power to kill or prohibit wind and solar projects, according to reporting by Signal Ohio that was distributed by the Associated Press.
The 2021 law, championed by statehouse Republicans, allows township trustees and county commissions to block utility-scale renewable installations, a veto power that does not extend to fossil fuel projects, which remain under state siting authority. Richland County, a heavily Republican area that President Donald Trump carried by more than 44 points, became one of 27 Ohio counties to adopt such a ban when commissioners voted last year. The ban applies only to the 11 of the county’s 18 townships whose trustees asked to be included.
Morgan Carroll, a Shelby resident who has been organizing the referendum at night while raising two young children, said she had never been politically active before the commissioners’ abrupt, little-noticed vote. “Government overreach is impeding on that,” Carroll said, describing the ban as an infringement on farmers’ rights to do as they please with their land. She and other backers contend that if a landowner wants to replace soybeans with solar panels, the local government should not stand in the way.
The referendum’s well-funded campaign faces a formidable opposition. Dustin McIntyre, a political operative who has served as treasurer for conservative PACs around the country, formed the Richland Farmland Preservation PAC to urge voters to keep the ban. The PAC’s website warns of “out of state, special interests” pushing the referendum and claims that “solar requires ~20x more land than natural gas.” Campaign finance records obtained by Signal Ohio show the PAC has raised money from local farmers, $1,500 from Republican state Sen. Mark Romanchuk, and $2,500 from Whatman Farms, owned by Tom Whatman of the GOP political firm Majority Strategies. Majority Strategies has also billed the committee more than $12,000 for digital advertising and text messaging.
On the opposing side, Richland County Citizens for Property Rights & Job Development reported nearly $84,000 in cash contributions, driven by $74,000 from Ohio Citizen Action, a grassroots advocacy group. The Natural Resources Defense Council provided an additional $250,000 in in-kind contributions for advertising and media, and Ohio Citizen Action contributed another $56,000 in in-kind support for staff, message testing, canvassing, and other expenses.
Commissioner Daryl Banks, who has served for 10 years, said he is suspicious of the money flowing in from New York and Columbus. He dismissed the property-rights argument, likening the ban to zoning laws that prohibit a gas station in a residential neighborhood. “We want to preserve farmland,” Banks said. “Once it goes to solar power or wind power, it’ll never be farmland again.”
Brian McPeek, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 688 in Mansfield, said he has been gathering signatures to keep the door open for solar projects that his union members might help build. He pointed to First Solar, the nation’s largest domestic solar panel manufacturer, as evidence that concerns about Chinese control of the grid are unfounded. McPeek described the vote as a referendum on government overreach, not on solar power itself. “Mansfield used to be on the cutting edge of development for a long time,” he said. “It’s fitting that we have a historic vote and that development is once again being decided at the ballots.”
No large-scale solar project is currently in the Ohio Power Siting Board’s queue for Richland County. But nearby, the same dynamic is unfolding. In Crawford County, where voters in 2022 overwhelmingly upheld a wind-power ban, developers have broken ground on the Sycamore Creek Solar project—a 117-megawatt, 917-acre installation that is expected to generate $16 million in new tax revenue over its first 20 years. The county commission there has since voted to prohibit all further solar development.
In adjacent Morrow County, the siting board last month killed the Crossroads Solar project, a $98 million, 726-acre development, after local opposition swayed the board despite the project meeting all technical requirements. Craig Adair, vice president of Open Road Renewables, characterized the environment in a previous interview: “This is no longer a good business proposition. We’re not starting any new projects in Ohio.”
Notably, neither side in the Richland County referendum is framing solar power as a bulwark against climate change, even as domestic oil and gas production sits at record levels and the World Meteorological Organization reports the past 11 years have been the warmest on record. The debate has remained squarely on questions of property rights, farmland, and local control—the same fault lines that have stalled renewable energy development across rural Ohio.