The Metro Lynchburg Moore County Planning Commission recently discussed permit fees for a proposed solar farm in their June meeting.
The Silicon Ranch Company’s proposed 2,000 acre solar panel farm has been a topic of discussion for the Metro Council and the Planning Commission since 2021.
After an ordinance for the development of Standards for Ground Mounted Solar Energy Systems (GSES) in November of 2021, discussions for the development of the solar farm have continued.
The county fee schedule was put in place to be effective as of June 2023, and in September of 2023, discussion of the solar farm resurfaced in a public meeting held at Moore County High School.
The permit fee for the proposed solar farm would be defined by each panel structure included on the 2,000 acre farm. Structure size was defined by the commission as a panel area of 2,400 square feet or less, and the charge per structure was $1,500 for the structure itself, and $2,500 for the environmental impact of each structure.
This topic was brought up by Commission Chairman Dexter Golden, as he’d recently been in contact about the solar farm, as they were not satisfied with the current permit fee.
“So, we’ve been asked if we’d revisit that number,” said Golden. “I asked questions about the chemical makeup that was inside the panels–if it was toxic.”
He said the reason he asked about the toxicity of the panels was because he’d heard that when a hailstorm went through a town in Alabama recently, it had damaged several of the panels, which then leaked into the ground of the surrounding environment, causing some issues with cattle and fish. Golden said he’d been told the panels were non-toxic.
He said he also asked if the solar farm was federally funded, and he was told it was privately funded.
He then said that the permit fee “would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 million,” reiterating the company’s complaints that the fee was too high.
Commissioner Jimmy Hammond reminded the commission that Franklin County currently has a moratorium on solar farms.
“I think before we consider lowering it, we should consider a moratorium,” he said, expressing concerns about the example Golden had used of the town in Alabama, along with concerns about the impact on the county.
Golden pointed out that if they adjusted the fee for the solar farm, they would set a precedent of being willing to change fee charges for future projects, which concerned him.
Commissioner Scott Truvall reminded the board that the fee was not a tax, but rather a fee put in place with the understanding of future impact on the county. He said the land the solar farm company had purchased was surrounded by county roads and that the amount of trucks bringing supplies to the solar farm for construction could cause significant damage to those roads.
Commissioner Jim Crawford also expressed a need for further research before considering changing the permit fee.
Golden closed the discussion after the board concluded that they were not ready to adjust the permit fee at the time.
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