BY BOB DEMAREE
With the technical committee of the Jefferson County Plan Commission meeting Tuesday to consider potential solar updates to its Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), the possibility was discussed on issuing a moratorium on solarapplications.
Orion Renewable Energy Group LLC has an application scheduled to come before the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) on Tuesday, Oct. 1, for a proposed $850 million solar project near Paynesville in Saluda Township.
The technical committee met with Amy Williams, principal/partner with Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, toconsider potential updates, discussing eight items on Tuesday with plans to discuss seven more at another meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, at the Troy Morgan Public Safety Center, 620 Green Road.
Separate from the Plan Commission’s work, the Jefferson County Commissioners have scheduled a public meeting togive residents an opportunity to learn more about solar energy for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at Southwestern HighSchool’s Delbert King Gymnasium. There will also be opportunities for residents to ask questions and discuss concernsregarding solar energy.
At Tuesday’s technical committee meeting, Deputy resident Sherry Chapo raised the question of a moratorium on solarprojects until the county’s UDO is officially updated to better address solar in Jefferson County. “We need a lot ofchanges done, and that’s going to take time, so what about a moratorium while you guys work on this, so that we don’thave more of these solar companies come in under our existing flawed UDO.”
Plan Commission President Warren Auxier said that was already in his mind; that he had reached the conclusion thatadditional time is needed to review proposed updates on solar to the UDO, and that he had emailed the three CountyCommissioners and County Attorney Patrick Magrath requesting that if it can be legally done to consider a moratoriumon solar applications. Auxier said his email also asked for consideration of moratorium on the application currently before the BZA from Orion Renewable Energy Group LLC.
“I don’t know from a legal standpoint if they can do so, or not,” said Auxier. “At this time, I don’t know if they’ve had enough time to consider that.”
County Commissioner David Bramer, who is also a member of the Plan Commission, said a moratorium could bediscussed but a legal opinion was first needed from Magrath.
“The main question is, ‘Can we put a moratorium and delay the application that has already been submitted andaccepted by the BZA for their review?’ ” Auxier said.
“What do the people need to do to ask the Commissioners to act on this?”Chapo asked.
“We need to ask the attorney if that is OK,” said Bramer. “I’m OK with putting a moratorium on it.”
Lynette Anderson, a former administrative assistant for the county’s Planning and Zoning Office, serves on the technical committee that is discussing the proposed solar updates to the UDO, a document that was approved by theCommissioners in 2023. She expressed concerns about moving forward with Orion’s application.
“I’ve tried to review the application. It’s just a ton of information. It’s more than what I have the education for or theexpertise for. It’s a lot of information,” Anderson said. “I helped work on the UDO the year we did that. From theknowledge I have, I just feel like to be fair to the solar application and to be fair to the citizens of the county, I don’t seehow we as a county are prepared or equipped to handle such an extensive application. I think when we wrote this ordinance we did the best we could at the time, considering what the state was allowing us to do. We got our firstapplication, and it’s very large, and very hard to understand and grasp it all.”
Anderson noted that because of those issues, “I don’t see how we can make a decision on that right now. I think weneed to have a moratorium on the application and on the ordinances so we can be better prepared for that.”
Justin Wolf, senior director for Orion, noted, he application has been in the county’s hands for several weeks andreviewable by the public since that time.
“The application was submitted in early July and it’s been publicly available for people to review,” Wolf said. “Ouropinion is that we have a vested right in place. We applied under the current rules of the ordinance. We have a hearing set and our application has been accepted. We are submitting public notice. We have undertaken a large door knocking campaign. We have spoken with the county council. There is an information meeting upcoming. Our belief, our positionis that we have a vested right there.
“I understand, I just don’t know the legalities,” said Auxier. Auxier also said he disagreed with Chapo that the county “rushed” the UDO through. “We spent a good deal of time onit. We weren’t as knowledgeable on the solar at the time. It was a more complicated issue than I had any idea.”
Auxier said he has contacted at least five other counties concerning their solar ordinances. “Without exception every single one of those counties have either changed their solar ordinances or they were in the process of reviewing themor changing them,” he said.
He noted that his question to them was whether those counties “made changes because of negative things that happened because of the solar, or are making those changes because of political or public outcry, and the mostcommon seems to be that changes are being made because of public outcry for the solar. When I try to nail downspecifics — Has it caused glare? Has it caused noise problems? Do you have different runoff than before? — the answers don’t seem to be there that those have been particular problems.”
However, Auxier noted that solar “has been a very divisive issue for the county” and Plan Commission will work to dowhat’s best for the county. “This board has a vested interest of doing what’s best for Jefferson County as a whole, and limit the impact on surrounding property owners.”
