Public Hearing Thursday, January 9On Thursday, Jan. 9, the Montgomery County Planning Board is having a public hearing on a proposal that may help decide what the county and the state will do about large solar installations on farmland. This is a big deal because solar companies are increasingly eyeing farmland—in the Ag Reserve and nationwide—to build larger facilities. Expanding solar energy is a good thing, but not when solar installations take prime farmland out of production. Proposed Solar FacilityThe proposal is for a 20-acre solar facility on a farm in Dickerson. The project is called Chaberton Solar Sugarloaf. A state agency, the Public Service Commission, has the ultimate say over the proposal’s fate. But Montgomery County gets to assess it, too. Planning Board staff released a report on Dec. 30, 2024 recommending that the project not move forward. Your Voice MattersOn Jan. 9, the public gets to weigh in. You can do so by testifying in person or virtually, or via written comments. Written comments are due by Tuesday, Jan. 7 at noon. Comments should be sent to MCP-Chair@mncppc-mc.org. You can sign up to testify here. We urge you to support the staff’s conclusion to oppose the project before the Public Service Commission. The Commission must take the county’s views into account. Montgomery County currently places limits on solar facilities on farmland, including limiting their size and permitting them only on land with poor quality soils. SCA and other local environmental and farm groups helped craft this policy and now urge the county to uphold it. The Chaberton project would be twice the size currently permitted in the county and it would be on prime soils. You can read SCA’s recently updated web post on this issue here. Thanks much for engaging in this citizen activism. You voice will make a difference.
|
