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 might set up a six-month moratorium on the evaluate, processing and allowing of group photo voltaic services on county property zoned for in agriculture. Commissioners offered the three-page ordinance Thursday, which they requested workers to draft after a Jan. 20 assembly.
“It is not placing a moratorium, it is persevering with a public listening to,” stated Commissioner President Ed Rothstein, who represents District 5.
A public listening to shall be scheduled in three to 4 weeks, County Legal professional Tim Burke stated.
“Everybody at that public listening to will get an opportunity to talk professional or con in regards to the moratorium,” he stated.
Nonetheless, at Thursday’s assembly there have been many public feedback for and towards 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 personal farm for years,” Dorsey stated. “My spouse and I wish 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 stated his spouse needed to give up her full-time job to care for his or her daughter. Cash turned a problem 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 stated.
“I simply wished to share the state of affairs with you,” he stated. “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 plenty of household within the Carroll space, and my household actually wants this. This moratorium will actually have an effect on us. We’re in search of … supplemental earnings, and really want considered one of these choices to not lose our residence.”
Stephen Roberts of Jasana Courtroom in Sykesville stated he’s in favor of the moratorium.
“I’m right here as a result of I’m combating for my pure and pure atmosphere that I’ve chosen to dwell in,” he stated. “Simply because you may, doesn’t suggest it is best to. However that is ignored many instances, 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 stated he additionally helps a moratorium.
“I not solely totally assist Carroll County’s land preservation applications, conservation mission, however to guard the rights of every of our residents, households and our neighboring properties, from services that produced by photo voltaic vitality, and constructed. close by,” he stated.
Hamilton stated he’s a 38-year resident of Carroll County, and he has no plans to maneuver, despite the fact that a photo voltaic farm has been proposed close to his residence.
“It is simply not one thing individuals need in a residential space, in the event that they border an agricultural space,” he stated. “It is not a great state of affairs.”
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 services.
“We oppose the moratorium as drafted,” he stated. “The photo voltaic group in Carroll County, and across the state, has a powerful security observe document, and we actually do not imagine it ought to take six months to discover a stability that preserves the pursuits of everybody.”
Dubitsky stated farmers who wish to set up photo voltaic on a few of their land are simply attempting to protect their land for future generations.
“It protects property rights, protects the well-being of farm households, financial improvement and positively the pursuits of neighbors,” he stated. “Photo voltaic in Carroll, and different counties, will not be the first risk to agriculture.”
Residential and business improvement is the risk, he stated.
Christopher Heyn, director of the county’s Division of Land & Useful resource Administration, stated on the January 20 assembly that there are 10 deliberate photo voltaic farms within the improvement evaluate. 4 of them are in industrial property.
Heyn instructed that these ought to proceed the evaluate course of, as a result of they are going to be positioned on industrial property, and stated that this proposed moratorium would have an effect on 5 out of 10 which might be on agricultural land.
In 2021, commissioners adopted a Neighborhood 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 group’s photo voltaic panels are constructed, the remaining property will go right into a everlasting conservation district. This was carried out to forestall the growth 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 stated he isn’t anti-solar, however he is undecided what his place is on a moratorium.
“I do not need a 20-acre photo voltaic farm 150 toes from our entrance door,” he stated. “I do know that. And never correctly screened … I believe we should always proceed to no less than examine this.
District 3 Commissioner Tom Gordon III stated he agrees with Kiler.
“Clearly it is a topic that has two completely different sides to it,” he stated. “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 difficult factor that we’re taking a look at.
District 1 Commissioner Joseph Vigliotti echoed earlier feedback from his colleagues.
“I believe the general public remark we have obtained at the 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 stated. “We’d like higher enter from the general public.”
Lastly, Rothstein reiterated that the board solely voted to schedule a public listening to to determine if a moratorium must be applied.
“It is not a win or lose state of affairs proper now,” he stated. “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 solution to go.”
