As a life-long resident of Richland County, I have always believed that what a property owner does with their own land is their own business. It should not be subject to a decision from our elected officials.
That is why I was troubled when our County Commissioners voted last summer to ban large-scale solar and wind energy projects in 11 of our 18 townships.
With the stroke of a pen, landowners lost the freedom to decide whether to lease their own property for energy production.
That decision now belongs to the Commissioners instead of the families who have worked and paid taxes on that land for generations.
On May 5, Richland County voters have a chance to change that. A NO vote overturns the ban.
I want to be clear about what a NO vote does and doesn’t mean. It doesn’t throw open the floodgates to unlimited development. It simply restores the common-sense practice of reviewing each proposed project individually, weighing its merits, and giving residents a voice.
That’s how it worked before, and it has worked just fine.
Electricity costs are rising, driven by record demand from manufacturers and data centers. At a time when energy availability matters more than ever, closing the door to local production doesn’t serve our community or our pocketbooks.
Whether or not any of us would personally lease our land for a solar or wind project, we should all agree that our neighbors deserve the right to make that decision for themselves.
I’m voting NO on May 5 to restore that right. I hope you’ll join me.
Susan Glorioso
Mansfield, Ohio