GERMANTOWN, Wis. — A proposal for 35 acres in Germantown on Pioneer Road to become a solar power energy site was rejected by the plan commission after the community spoke out against it.
The plan commission voted against the conditional use permit application in a 4 to 2 vote on Monday night.
Robert Overmier is the landowner who is hoping to lease some of his farmland to One Energy Renewables to build a solar panel facility.
"It's just our way of helping out," Overmier said. "This, in my eyes, is just another method of farming, but in this case it's an energy farming, and I think it's great for everybody."
The Village of Germantown Plan Commission considered approving the conditional use permit for the clean energy project, but a number of community members spoke out against it.
"The development of farmland is never progress," local farmer Jim Stout said. "It is always loss. Every acre of farmland that is developed is lost forever."
Watch: Germantown community speaks out against solar panel facility proposal
"I don't want to see it!" Linda Menza said. "I don't want to feel like I'm living in Milwaukee looking at an industrial site."
"I'm concerned about the offset," Penny Dunne-Muzi said. "Is it really that green? Probably not. How do we get to benefit as taxpayers?"
One Energy Renewables, the team aiming to rent the land and build the solar panels, said the following: they'll take care of the land, they won't hurt property values, and solar panels are one of the cleanest and most efficient ways to reduce energy bill costs locally.
"When we produce local power for local consumption," Project manager Peter Murphy said. "We insulate it against geopolitical forces that can shoot up the cost of gas, for example."
Murphy said the solar panels would provide energy for 1,400 homes near the proposed facility.
"If you can harness free energy from the sun, yes, there is a cost to me, for the development of my own personal property," Overmier said. "But I think in the long run it's the best way to go."
He hoped the project would pass because it could reduce the development of coal, gas or nuclear energy plants.
If the project had been approved, construction would have started in the spring of 2026 and finished in the fall.
The plan commission voted against the application, but did discuss a similar project that had previously been denied by the village, then they were sued without probable reason of harm, and the project happened anyway. The plan commission stated a similar situation could happen with this project.
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