The county planning commission will hold a hearing next month about proposed amendments to the subdivision and land development ordinance, including regulations for decommissioning large solar and wind energy generation facilities.

County commissioners on Wednesday approved advertising the hearing, which will be held July 19 at 9 a.m. in the public meeting room in the Government Center. The commissioners will consider the amendments at their meeting at 10 a.m. that day. The planning commission recommended approval at its May 17 meeting.

Joel MacKay, county planner, said the proposed amendments are a result of a review of the ordinance, in which he found some deficiencies.

One deficiency was a requirement for municipalities to administer and maintain bonds for decommissioning large solar and wind energy facilities.

“Some smaller municipalities have difficulty with that,” MacKay said.

The proposed amendment requires decommissioning bonds to be at least 25% of the estimated cost to decommission, or to match the total cost of decommissioning after deducting the salvage value of the equipment.

In addition, the proposal calls for facility owners or operators to include a decommissioning plan in their land development application. The plan must indicate that the owner or operator will decommission their facility within 12 months after the end of the its useful life. A facility is presumed to be at the end of its useful life if no electricity is generated for 12 continuous months.

Estimates of decommissioning costs have to be included in the plan and provided to the county every five years, according to the amendment.

Commissioner Kim Geyer commended the planning commission for tightening up language in the ordinance to help protect municipalities.

In other business, the commissioners issued a proclamation making June National Dairy Month and recognized Butler County Dairy Princess Daisy Snow and the Dairy Court for supporting dairy farmers.

The number of dairy farms in the county has fallen from 369 in 1969 to 24 today, according to the proclamation. The average size herd of those farms is 89 cows.