The Patrick County Planning Commission will meet on Tuesday, July 15, to determine which proposed solar ordinance amendment to forward to the Board of Supervisors for approval.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Community Room of the Patrick & Henry Community College Stuart site.
Commission Chairman Kurt Bozenmayer said the meeting will begin as a joint session with the Economic Development Authority (EDA).
“Once we get done with the EDA, we’re going to move into the regular business, which will be the consideration of the amendments for the solar ordinance,” he said.
The commission is currently reviewing two separate amendments, one developed by The Berkley Group, a consulting firm, and the other written by At-Large member Ed Pool.
Bozenmayer said the Berkley Group’s version is a condensed draft that states any consideration of commercial solar facilities must adhere to the Virginia law, which “essentially says that since we don’t have zoning here, we can’t specifically regulate a use other than what’s included in that … rule, which does have a special exemption for regulating solar facilities,” he said.
Pool’s amendment, Bozenmayer said, is currently 28 pages and growing.
“It includes everything from financial considerations to a big amount of it concerns decommissioning, and a lot of the financial surety stuff that goes along with it. It goes down to as far as the construction workers — whether they have a 10-hour OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) card or a 30-hour OSHA card,” he said.
Bozenmayer said he does not believe it is the county’s role to regulate that kind of detail, but rather the responsibility of the employer.
Commission members are currently submitting edits and suggestions for Pool’s draft.
“I’ve seen a few of these. I’ve made some suggestions myself that he’s already incorporated, but he has those two weeks to have that document finalized, and it’s been recommended that he get it done in time so it can be distributed to the rest of the members of the commission so that they can read it and review it prior to going to the meeting. We don’t want them spending the whole meeting just reading this 28-page document,” Bozenmayer said.
He said the commission has been working on the solar ordinance at the request of the Board of Supervisors for several months. After completing revisions to the county’s comprehensive plan, the commission turned its attention to the ordinance.
“One of the last things the Berkley Group did for the county before the supervisors cut them loose was that they had submitted this proposed amendment to the solar ordinance. The commission members read that, and a few of them felt that it wasn’t broad enough or it wasn’t specific enough in certain areas, so they wanted to add a few things to it. That’s how it grew into this whole separate amendment,” he said.
If the commission agrees to an amendment, it will be presented at a public hearing before being sent to the board.
“Once we present it at the public hearing, it will go to the Board of Supervisors for their action on it—whether they accept it or reject it,” Bozenmayer said.
Because of the amount of scheduling required, Bozenmayer said he suggested a few possible dates to other commission members via email.
“I didn’t make anything specific, set in stone as it were,” he said.
