Proposed Solar Energy Developments Draw Opposition Over Loss of Farmland

by Alison Knezevich (Washington Post) Gary Atkinson sees new potential for the fields that have long yielded corn and soybeans on his northern Baltimore County farm.

A Seattle-based energy company, OneEnergy Renewables, plans to lease a portion of the scenic property in Freeland for an installation of solar panels that could power hundreds of homes — a deal Atkinson says will keep the farm profitable for years to come.

The Baltimore County Council passed rules in 2017 to govern commercial solar projects, and since then developers have proposed about 20. But now community groups are challenging many of them, saying farmland isn’t the right place for commercial solar development. And a councilman wants to put the brakes on projects like the one in Freeland.

His (Baltimore County council member Wade Kach (R-District 3)) measure targets so-called “community solar” developments on rural land zoned for conservation.

Kach and those supporting his proposed moratorium say commercial solar development will take productive farmland out of use, mar rural beauty and diminish home property values. They want the county to instead steer solar development toward places like parking lots, rooftops and abandoned industrial areas.

“The bottom line is: Solar is wanted, needed,” said Teresa Moore, interim executive director of the Valleys Planning Council, a land preservation group. But “is it necessary to sacrifice our best farmland?”

Kach noted that after the law passed, the county planning board recommended that solar facilities be directed toward business and manufacturing areas — and should not be placed on “prime and productive soils” or detract from scenic routes.

The seven-member County Council is set to vote on Kach’s proposal Tuesday. A crowd packed a recent council meeting to discuss the bill, with more than 50 people signing up to testify.

In 2017, Anne Arundel County imposed an eight-month ban on solar projects, then established new zoning rules limiting where they can be built.

Talbot County on the Eastern Shore and Frederick County are among the places that have temporarily halted solar projects amid debate.

Howard County, meanwhile, passed a measure to specifically allow solar projects on agricultural land.

But farmland is particularly desirable for solar developers. They pay less for it than for property in urban areas and can build more easily upon the open land.

Atkinson says he likes that solar panels are not permanent, unlike other development.

Santo Mirabile, president of the Hanover Road Association in northern Baltimore County, said the 2017 legislation didn’t take into account many of the concerns of rural communities.

“With proper guidance, the government can guide these developers toward installations on brownfields, on top of commercial buildings” and other places that wouldn’t detract from the north county’s rural nature, Mirabile said.