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Updated: January 9, 2026 @ 11:33 am
Coolspring Township residents view a township zoning map after Monday’s regular supervisors meeting. Township supervisors made a move to get recommendations from the Mercer County Regopma; Planning Commission on the township’s proposal to limit future solar farms to only sites zoned for industrial use in the township.
Coolspring Township’s supervisors, from left, Drew Shaffer, Ken Struthers and Cory Masson, relaxed before their regular meeting on Monday. By a 2-0 vote the supervisors will seek a zoning recommendation from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission that would limit future solar farms to industrial zoned properties in the township.
A couple dozen Coolspring Township residents were on hand at Monday’s supervisors meeting. The supervisors took on the issue of how to zone future solar farms, which has been a hot topic in the township over the past two years.
A closeup view shows one of two sites in Coolspring Township that are currently zoned for industrial use. This one is on the eastern edge of the township southeast of Franklin Road near Turner Station and Coolspring Church roads, and is mostly farm fields now.
A closeup view shows one of two sites in Coolspring Township that are currently zoned for industrial use. It is a triangle bounded by Franklin Road (U.S. Route 62) and Fairground Road on the south edge of the township near Mercer borough.
The zoning legend for Coolspring Township’s zoning map.
This Coolspring Township zoning map shows locations of sites that can house specific things such as homes and commercial businesses. Yellow represents industrial sites. Coolspring Township supervisors said they are seeking zoning recommendations from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission to house future solar farms in industrial zoned properties in the township.
The Coolspring Township zoning map legend,
Coolspring Township residents view a township zoning map after Monday’s regular supervisors meeting. Township supervisors made a move to get recommendations from the Mercer County Regopma; Planning Commission on the township’s proposal to limit future solar farms to only sites zoned for industrial use in the township.
Coolspring Township’s supervisors, from left, Drew Shaffer, Ken Struthers and Cory Masson, relaxed before their regular meeting on Monday. By a 2-0 vote the supervisors will seek a zoning recommendation from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission that would limit future solar farms to industrial zoned properties in the township.
A couple dozen Coolspring Township residents were on hand at Monday’s supervisors meeting. The supervisors took on the issue of how to zone future solar farms, which has been a hot topic in the township over the past two years.
A closeup view shows one of two sites in Coolspring Township that are currently zoned for industrial use. This one is on the eastern edge of the township southeast of Franklin Road near Turner Station and Coolspring Church roads, and is mostly farm fields now.
A closeup view shows one of two sites in Coolspring Township that are currently zoned for industrial use. It is a triangle bounded by Franklin Road (U.S. Route 62) and Fairground Road on the south edge of the township near Mercer borough.
The zoning legend for Coolspring Township’s zoning map.
This Coolspring Township zoning map shows locations of sites that can house specific things such as homes and commercial businesses. Yellow represents industrial sites. Coolspring Township supervisors said they are seeking zoning recommendations from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission to house future solar farms in industrial zoned properties in the township.
The Coolspring Township zoning map legend,
COOLSPRING TOWNSHIP – The Coolspring Township supervisors took a major step Monday in possibly limiting future solar farms to industrial-zoned sites.
By a 2-0 vote, Supervisors Drew Shaffer and Cory Masson voted in favor of the motion. Supervisor Ken Struthers recusing himself.
Before the vote, Struthers said extensive conversations were held with the township solicitor. It was decided that it would be in the best interest of the township that future solar farms should only be placed on industrial-zoned land.
The township zoning map has two small areas that are zoned industrial: A triangle bounded by Franklin Road (U.S. Route 62) and Fairground Road on the south edge of the township near Mercer borough, and a section on the eastern edge of the township southeast of Franklin Road near Turner Station and Coolspring Church roads.
In the recent past, the township granted a zoning exemption to solar companies to build solar farms on land zoned for other than industrial uses. Some installations are in residential zones.
“In my mind, these large solar companies should do their homework,’’ Struthers said of them seeking zoning exemptions on land for solar farms. “It’s not our responsibility to provide it for them. It’s their responsibility to find it.’’
The supervisors’s vote on Monday doesn’t change the township’s zoning code.
Rather, the measure sends the matter to the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission. The Planning Commission is required to give its zoning recommendations within 45 days after receiving the request.
Supervisors can accept, reject or modify the Planning Commission’s recommendations. The supervisors also can change their minds and scrap the idea entirely – or they can continue with their original plans.
After the meeting, Masson said he wasn’t committing himself to any decision.
“We’ll see what it looks like when we it comes back,’’ he said of the Planning Commission’s recommendations.
Existing solar farms would be grandfathered in to past zoning decisions and would not be affected, Struthers said after the meeting.
For over two years, the location of solar farms has been divisive for this community of just over 2,100. It has pitted landowners, neighbors and even families against each other. A couple dozen residents attended Monday’s meeting.
Shaffer and Struthers were newly-elected to their posts in November. Prior to discussing zoning, in their annual reorganizing meeting Struthers was elected president of the supervisors.
Throughout the meeting on various subjects, he asked the other supervisors and the township secretary for friendly background information.
Before the vote, a parliamentary issue surfaced. Struthers asked whether it was OK for him to make the motion on the measure even though he recused himself from the vote.
It was ultimately decided he could make the motion.
After the meeting, Struthers said he recused himself because he owns land in the township and that might appear to be a conflict of interest for him to vote on the measure.
On Tuesday, The Herald contacted Melissa Melewsky, the media law council for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. When asked whether an elected official could recuse themselves on a vote but make the motion on the issue, Melewsky said it was hard to say.
“I would say it’s unusual,’’ she said. “But that doesn’t mean it crossed the line.’’
Similarly, the question was put by The Herald to Mary Fox, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission.
“We would need a complaint filed and then investigate,’’ Fox said.
Both officials were clear – they couldn’t give a definitive answer.
Any action taken by the supervisors on zoning changes must be held at a public meeting.
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