YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners have set a Feb. 15 public hearing on whether to expand a ban on large solar and wind farms in the unincorporated areas of 10 more townships.

The hearing follows the commissioners’ decision Nov. 9 to ban such projects in Green Township after the trustees there requested the ban.

Commissioners reached out to the 13 other townships in the county to ask whether they also have an interest in banning large solar and wind projects, and Austintown, Beaver, Berlin, Canfield, Coitsville, Goshen, Jackson, Milton, Poland and Springfield were interested.

“A lot of people don’t want blight. A lot of people don’t want huge windmills in their fields. We have very good farm and agricultural property,” Traficanti said. “A lot of the farmers are not in favor of this.”

Three townships were not interested in banning the technologies — Boardman, Ellsworth and Smith — Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said.

Traficanti said a lot of the concerns voiced by the 10 additional townships were similar to the concerns that were voiced when commissioners held two public hearings for the Green Township ban.

“People just don’t want it. There are too many unknowns. Down the road if the company changes hands, 150 acres of solar panels, nobody is monitoring them, the runoff, the rainwater, there are a lot of variables that go along with this,” Traficanti said of the opposition he has heard.

“The technology may change in the next five years. We don’t know, but to put this type of infrastructure in here, I think the communities definitely have a right to voice their opinion against it, because nobody really understands it at this point,” he said.

The hearing will be 5:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at McMahon Hall, 7574 Columbiana-Canfield Road, Canfield.

A solar project was proposed for 675 acres owned by Wayne and Sara Greier of Washingtonville Road in Green Township that would have involved a 150-megawatt, $150-million project by Alpin Sun of Texas. It would have been in Green and Beaver townships, according to a letter from Alpin Sun received by the county commissioners.

Green Township trustees approved a resolution in May asking for the ban, which is allowed under Ohio law.

Wayne Greier said the Green Township ban ended the possibility the project on his property will move forward. He and his wife had been in talks with Alpin Sun for about three years, he said.