About 25 Coburn residents came to a recent Logan Township Planning Commission meeting to express reservations about a request to rezone 266 wooded acres nearby to enable construction of a solar farm.

Those residents asked whether the 12-acre array could cause problems connected with water wells, runoff, traffic, wildlife, the view from their homes and taxes and insurance rates.

“It shouldn’t bother anybody,” said John Feather, owner of the 12 acres he would lease to Harrisburg-based Penn3 Power Partners LLC for a 3 megawatt facility that would sell power to the local grid. He also owns much of the rest of the property.

The solar farm wouldn’t be visible from a public road, would produce no noise, no emissions and virtually no traffic, runoff would go to the mainline railroad tracks and the project should have no effect on wells or taxes or property insurance rates, said Scott Wyland, a principal in Penn3 Power, and Feather.

The township can’t rezone just the 12-acre tract where the solar farm would go. It needs to extend the rezoning of agricultural land to connect with an existing industrial zone that covers part of the Mill Run area to avoid illegal spot zoning, Feather and Wyland said.

The discussion about the rezoning proposal lasted about 50 minutes, and toward the end, some residents’ questions seemed to have a softer edge, after hearing the reassurances from Wyland and Feather.

“You’re going to destroy the whole area,” one resident said at the beginning of the meeting.

Later residents were mainly asking about the details of the rezoning process, although even then, there was skepticism.

“We’re not big money people,” said resident Dave Buck. “This change is to benefit a select few.”

Currently, many people use Feather’s land, but he’s responsible for it, and he’s paying several thousand dollars a year in taxes on it, he said. If he doesn’t do something with it, it won’t be worth it for him to keep the property.

“I’m old,” Feather said. “I’m tired.”

But in choosing to lease some of it for the solar array, he took the residents’ interests into consideration, Feather said.

They’ll still be able to hunt on the ground he owns near the facility, he said.

The array won’t make noise like windmills, he said.

“I don’t want any battles,” Feather said.

It’s not unusual for people to resist change in the status quo, but in the case of the Coburn residents, Feather is currently financing that status quo, according to Wyland.

If the township rezones the ground, something totally different could go in besides or in addition to the solar farm, said resident Diane Landeck.

It’s true that changing the ground to industrial would allow for a long slate of uses, but the existing agricultural designation already allows for a long list of uses that residents might not appreciate, Wyland pointed out.

Those include hog farming and residential subdivisions, said township Planning Director Cassandra Schmick.

Many of the uses that are permitted in both ag and industrial zones are unlikely to be realized in that part of the township, because there’s no public water or sewer, there are steep slopes and road access is limited, Schmick said.

The commission plans to discuss the matter further in January.

The commission has the power only to recommend to township supervisors whether to rezone the property. If the supervisors decide to hold a vote on the matter, there would need to be a public hearing beforehand, Schmick said.