County also files in federal court a motion to dismiss Stellar’s lawsuit
The Henderson Fiscal Court on Tuesday approved a request to file a petition seeking a declaratory judgment from a state court regarding the litigation between the county and Stellar Renewable Power, which is planning to build a solar farm near Ky. 425.
Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said at Tuesday’s meeting that the petition will be to determine if a solar energy systems moratorium passed by fiscal court in February 2025 applies to Stellar.
Stellar was granted site plan approval extensions in 2024 and 2025 by the Henderson City-County Planning Commission, and the company contends that the moratorium does not apply to the project, called Henderson County Solar, because both 2021 and 2024 site plan approvals came before the moratorium and the 2025 extension approval was “grandfathered” in.
County Attorney Steve Gold said in Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting shortly before the fiscal court voted that state courts can issue declaratory judgments, which allows the court to decide how a particular law applies to a dispute. He said federal courts do not issue declaratory judgments.
Fiscal court went into 10-minute executive session near the end of the meeting, and when it reconvened, magistrates gave approval for the county’s legal representation to file the petition. The motion also included a point that the appointment of a special judge would not be objected to. Gold said that the state Supreme Court would most likely appoint a special judge to deal with the petition.
Gold did not say in a brief interview with the Hendersonian what effect the petition filed in Henderson Circuit Court may have in the ongoing litigation between Stellar and the county that is currently in federal court.
But also on Tuesday, the county’s legal representatives filed in U.S. District Court’s Western District of Kentucky a motion to dismiss Stellar’s lawsuit, which its counsel had filed on June 22.
Among the arguments in the county’s motion to dismiss is that Stellar has bypassed local administrative procedures to resolve the dispute and instead filed its complaint with the federal court.
The county’s legal counsel also argued that the federal court should decline jurisdiction in this lawsuit, which is better suited to be heard in Henderson Circuit Court.
Additionally, the motion stated that the type of solar installment that Stellar intends to build—a level 3 solar energy system—is no longer included in Henderson County’s solar energy ordinance, which was amended in July 2023 with only Level 1 and Level 2 solar energy systems regulated in the ordinance.
Also, the county argues that Stellar, which is organized as an LLC out of Delaware and is based in Texas, can’t sue in the state of Kentucky because it is not registered to transact business in the state, according to the motion to dismiss.
The leadup to the lawsuit began in late May when the construction company hired by Stellar, WHC of Texas, applied for a building permit for the roughly 421-acre site. County codes administrator, Randy Tasa, did not grant the permit initially, eventually submitting a letter to the fiscal court that said attorneys representing the county are researching if moratorium applies in this situation.
The basic argument by Stellar is that the project’s application and site plans were submitted and approved before the fiscal court’s moratorium on solar energy systems went into effect in February 2025, so using the moratorium as a basis for not granting a building permit is erroneous.
Stellar contends that the project was “grandfathered” in because site plan approvals had been granted before the moratorium was in place. In Stellar’s complaint, the plaintiffs said officials with the county had said that the moratorium “should not apply retroactively to already approved, grandfathered projects.”
Additionally, a site plan extension was granted by the Henderson City-County Planning Commission in July 2025 because that body believes the site plan was grandfathered in, said Stellar’s complaint.
At Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting, Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said the issue revolves around if the moratorium applies to Stellar’s project.
“The question is the extent of which our ordinances including moratoriums apply to this company,” he said.
Schneider added that the county government has spent the past 11 months attempting to explain to people that the county will follow the law when dealing with renewable energy concerns, and that includes local people and businesses as well as large corporations.
Schneider said it would be hypocritical at this juncture if the county did not continue to follow the law. “We’re going to follow the law,” he said.
See the county’s motion to dismiss filed in federal court below.
