The Board of Carroll County Commissioners will give residents one other alternative to supply enter on a controversial proposed six-month moratorium on photo voltaic farms.
Commissioners agreed Thursday to carry a public listening to on a proposed ordinance that will set up a six-month moratorium on the assessment, processing and allowing of neighborhood photo voltaic amenities on county property zoned for in agriculture. Commissioners offered the three-page ordinance Thursday, which they requested employees to draft after a Jan. 20 assembly.
“It is not placing a moratorium, it is persevering with a public listening to,” mentioned Commissioner President Ed Rothstein, who represents District 5.
A public listening to will likely be scheduled in three to 4 weeks, County Legal professional Tim Burke mentioned.
“Everybody at that public listening to will get an opportunity to talk professional or con concerning the moratorium,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, at Thursday’s assembly there have been many public feedback for and in opposition to the proposed moratorium.
Ryan Dorsey of Taneytown spoke about how the moratorium will negatively have an effect on his household.
“My spouse and I’ve been saving for a non-public farm for years,” Dorsey mentioned. “My spouse and I need to research agriculture. Sadly, on the similar time we purchased our farm, my oldest daughter was born severely disabled and he or she has many well being points.
Dorsey mentioned his spouse needed to stop her full-time job to care for his or her daughter. Cash grew to become a difficulty within the household. They obtained a lease from an organization to put in photo voltaic panels on 11 hectares of their 100-hectare farm, he mentioned.
“I simply needed to share the scenario with you,” he mentioned. “Due to my daughter’s situation. Once more, I am not a big-time investor or firm. I’m a small, native Westminster. I grew up in Westminster, I graduated from Westminster Excessive. I’ve a number of household within the Carroll space, and my household actually wants this. This moratorium will actually have an effect on us. We’re searching for … supplemental earnings, and really want one among these choices to not lose our dwelling.”
Stephen Roberts of Jasana Courtroom in Sykesville mentioned he’s in favor of the moratorium.
“I’m right here as a result of I’m preventing for my pure and pure surroundings that I’ve chosen to dwell in,” he mentioned. “Simply because you possibly can, doesn’t suggest you need to. However that is neglected many occasions, as a result of cash is concerned. It is about cash … I purchased my property, due to the standard of life for my household. So I encourage you to please proceed this transformation. “
Mark Hamilton of Fannie Dorsey Highway in Sykesville mentioned he additionally helps a moratorium.
“I not solely absolutely help Carroll County’s land preservation packages, conservation mission, however to guard the rights of every of our residents, households and our neighboring properties, from amenities that produced by photo voltaic vitality, and constructed. close by,” he mentioned.
Hamilton mentioned he’s a 38-year resident of Carroll County, and he has no plans to maneuver, regardless that a photo voltaic farm has been proposed close to his dwelling.
“It is simply not one thing individuals need in a residential space, in the event that they border an agricultural space,” he mentioned. “It is not an excellent scenario.”
Adam Dubitsky, state director of the Land & Liberty Coalition of Maryland, a grassroots group that works with farmers, landowners, clear vitality advocates and coverage makers to enhance coverage that advances renewable vitality, speaks in favor of photo voltaic amenities.
“We oppose the moratorium as drafted,” he mentioned. “The photo voltaic neighborhood in Carroll County, and across the state, has a robust security observe report, and we actually do not consider it ought to take six months to discover a stability that preserves the pursuits of everybody.”
Dubitsky mentioned farmers who need to set up photo voltaic on a few of their land are simply making an attempt to protect their land for future generations.
“It protects property rights, protects the well-being of farm households, financial growth and definitely the pursuits of neighbors,” he mentioned. “Photo voltaic in Carroll, and different counties, shouldn’t be the first menace to agriculture.”
Residential and business growth is the menace, he mentioned.
Christopher Heyn, director of the county’s Division of Land & Useful resource Administration, mentioned on the January 20 assembly that there are 10 deliberate photo voltaic farms within the growth assessment. 4 of them are in industrial property.
Heyn urged that these ought to proceed the assessment course of, as a result of they are going to be positioned on industrial property, and mentioned that this proposed moratorium would have an effect on 5 out of 10 which are on agricultural land.
In 2021, commissioners adopted a Group Photo voltaic Zoning Textual content Modification to the county’s photo voltaic code that permits photo voltaic vitality farms on sure parts of land zoned agricultural. Photo voltaic panels can solely be positioned on 20 hectares of parcels. After the neighborhood’s photo voltaic panels are constructed, the remaining property will go right into a everlasting conservation district. This was accomplished to stop the enlargement of the photo voltaic facility.
There are about 22,000 acres in Carroll County eligible for photo voltaic panels, although not all land could also be appropriate.
District 2 Commissioner Ken Kiler mentioned he isn’t anti-solar, however he is unsure what his place is on a moratorium.
“I do not need a 20-acre photo voltaic farm 150 ft from our entrance door,” he mentioned. “I do know that. And never correctly screened … I believe we should always proceed to at the least examine this. “
District 3 Commissioner Tom Gordon III mentioned he agrees with Kiler.
“Clearly it is a topic that has two completely different sides to it,” he mentioned. “I respect all of the emails, I respect everybody coming in, the cellphone calls. We all know, we’re listening, and we perceive that it is a sophisticated factor that we’re .
District 1 Commissioner Joseph Vigliotti echoed earlier feedback from his colleagues.
“I believe the general public remark we have obtained right this moment, and during the last week and a half or so, displays the truth that we have to go forward with a public listening to,” he mentioned. “We want higher enter from the general public.”
Lastly, Rothstein reiterated that the board solely voted to schedule a public listening to to resolve if a moratorium ought to be put in place.
“It is not a win or lose scenario proper now,” he mentioned. “So no applause, no ovation. Now we have to get it proper, as a result of we’re Carroll County. We nonetheless have a protracted approach to go.”
