By Taylor Boyd
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors approved the proposed solar facility ordinance with a 3-1 vote at a March 9 meeting.
Chairman Andrew Overby, of the Dan River District; Vice-chairman Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, and Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, voted in favor of the ordinance.
Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District, cast the only dissenting vote.
Before voting, Marshall said he didn’t approve of a document that’s guaranteed to fail.
“This ordinance looks tough, and I understand that’s why people are buying into it, but there’s some intentional content here a developer’s attorney will pick a part easily. When that happens in federal court the judge does not fix the bad parts, he throws the whole thing out,” he said.
Marshall said the county would be wide open for any interest utility-scale solar farm, industrial battery storage system, or data center “looking for cheap land. They’ll have nothing standing in their way.
“You can’t close the door once it’s open. The ordinance is being pushed as our strongest line of defense, but probably very well may it will end up being the very thing that leaves us defenseless,” Marshall said.
Wood said the ordinance is a working document.
“Is it 100 percent accurate? No. I’d be the first to admit that, but being a working document, it can change. We can get more input,” he said.
Wood said he wants to get an ordinance approved so the county can hopefully keep utility scale solar development out.
“We learned that was the will of our people two years ago, I believe. So we want to keep that moving forward,” Wood said. “Like I said, it’s not perfect. I understand that. Nothing in life is, but that’s not to say changes can’t be made.”
Wood noted the commission can continue working on the document and make necessary changes.
“I hope that they do with more input. But we need a starting point because right now. The way I see it is, we’re kind of up in the air with anything that could happen,” Wood said.
Marshall said the starting point Wood speaks of falls on the commission.
“The key word there is planning. Not knee-jerk, not throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks, it’s called planning. I sat through all these meetings, I go to every single planning commission meeting. This was not across the board approved. This was slipped in when some folks were absent from a meeting and there was a majority that could vote this in,” Marshall said.
Noting he doesn’t want to write a check that the county can’t cash with the solar ordinance, Marshall wants an “actual ordinance that doesn’t have any illegal provisions in that that actually protects the viewshed, the neighborhoods, and the environment. And leave the egos out of the ring.”
Overby said the commission’s September 16 meeting minutes reflect a unanimous vote of the present members for the proposed ordinance to be sent to the board to issue for public comment.
“Yes, that’s what I said. The ones that were there that night. I don’t know what you’re correcting, but that’s exactly what I just said,” Marshall replied.
Kendrick said the county needs to start somewhere.
“Yes with the planning commission and with planning,” Marshall said.
“We actually maybe waited too long. The state’s about the mandate that we do it, so we’ve got to start somewhere,” Kendrick said.
Despite the majority support from the board for the ordinance, residents who spoke at the meeting voiced mixed feelings about it.
Norma Bozemayer said she believes the ordinance doesn’t understand environmental testing and the county.
“Having worked in industrial environmental monitoring and currently doing water quality monitoring with environmental groups in the area, I see the proposed solar ordinance as totally unenforceable as written. Just listing chemicals is useless to anyone testing the environment,” she said.
Bozenmayer said the ordinance needs stated acceptable limits, with units for each contaminate and a test method and testing schedule.
“For instance, a 10 minute air sample once would be very different than a 24-hour sample monthly. Smelling the air or water, which is considered an acceptable environmental test, is very different than using liquid chromatography. They also need background data,” she said.
Bozenmayer said many of the chemicals listed are also naturally occurring in the environment.
“We want fungal spores in the forest and agricultural soil as part of a healthy environment. We want fungal spores in our digestive tracts as part of a healthy body. Therefore that general category is useless unless you listed the type of fungus you are concerned about and a limit and test method,” she said.
Bozenmayer noted silicon is the second most abundant element of earth, second only to oxygen.
“Therefore, silica dust is everywhere all the time unless you live a sterile bubble. If you are really worried about its limits, particle size would need to be set with a test method,” she said.
If Kendrick dumps a truckload of gravel on a driveway, Boenmayer said she’d guarantee he’s stirring up silica dust. Likewise, she said Wood pushes fungal spores every time he carries hay to his cows.
“I’ll guarantee you that many of the other chemicals listed are found in other industries, the schools, and households in Patrick County. My point is be realistic, and don’t trust an AI generated document to understand Patrick County.
“There are EPA standards for air, soil, and water that have been set based on thousands of test points, with people trained in environmental testing that could be easily used instead of this vague, lengthy, unenforceable document,” Bozenmayer said.
Kurt Bozenmayer addressed the board regarding the “corruption of the proposed solar siting ordinance” being considered.
Following the amendment of the comprehensive plan as recommended by the Berkley Group, the board of supervisors directed the Planning Commission to evaluate the solar siting ordinance modified by the Berkley Group.
“The planning commission was generally dissatisfied with the Berkley Group’s ordinance, and one of the members volunteers to draft an alternative ordinance with input from other members,” he said.
Kurt Bozenmayer’ personal input on the draft included protection for scenic view scapes, that include scenic roads, highways, trials, overlooks, parks and historical/recreational areas, and the numerous Virginia Century Farms.
Kurt Bozenmayer said the draft ordinance was submitted to the county attorney for evaluation. The attorney responded in August 2025 that the county’s “authority to regulate solar use is limited to 2232 review of proposed utility-scale solar facilities.”
“The board of supervisors responded by resubmitting the proposed ordinance to the planning commission with the deletion of protection for the designated Virginia Birding & Wildlife Trails, and inclusion of nebulous language such as ‘set back distance 50 feet.’ The obvious question: set back from what,” he said.
Despite these concerns, at the February Planning Commission meeting, Kurt Bozenmayer said Overby stated a vote by the commission wasn’t necessary to approve the changes.
“It should not be presumed that the planning commission still favors this draft without a vote. Should the board decide to approve this draft ordinance without further review by its legal consultants, in consideration that the attorney has already identified problems with the earlier version, it appears that the board prefers unvetted AI-generated verbiage to legally-approved language, and is setting the county up to have this ordinance thrown out of the first courtroom where it is challenged. They must therefore bear the responsibility for any subsequent legal failings of this ordinance,” Kurt Bozenmayer said.
Noting he has a background in finance, Steve Ferring said “there’s not any way in hell” the county can make the proposal’s listed financial information regarding the bonds and the misnomer of lease-leasee legally tangible.
“I have one word for this proposal and it’s from farm country. I think we all know what bullshit is,” Ferring said.
After two years of discussion on the topic, Trena Anderson thanked the board and the planning commission for their hard work to learn, listen, and discuss the issues involved with solar that could potentially affect every person in the county.
“Thank you to the residents of Patrick County who had the courage to stand up and speak against allowing commercial solar facilities. We’ve all paid the price. As difficult as the last two years have been, I believe that we all agree that we have a duty to protect the county, the people, and most importantly the generations yet to come,” she said.
Anderson said the ordinance is one of the most well-written legal documents she’s had experience with and its intent of protection is clear.
“Protection of the health and well-being of people, waterways, and land. The financial protections included in the ordinance are clear and direct: we won’t allow commercial solar builders, owners, and operators to leave the taxpayers holding the bag if there is a toxic chemical incident,” she said.
Noting the county is the home of the Dan River Basin headwaters, Anderson said the board has the responsibility to stand up to Virginia’s state government and protect the waterways.
“We are trusting that you will do the right thing tonight to protect the health of thousands of people and miles of waterways. I’m confident that you will make the difficult decision tonight to do the right thing,” Anderson said.
LeAnn Seeley said she has deep concerns about any chemicals that could potentially leach into local wells, creeks, streams, and other waterways from any solar facility that could be built in Patrick County.
“Once there’s contamination, it’s always there. You can’t remove it. The only way it can be stopped is to prevent it from happening. Once it happens, there’s no going back. No water, no life,” she said.
Seeley said people have an obligation to protect the environment for their children, grandchildren, and other future generations.
“I desire that you vote for the proposed solar facility ordinance in place as written,” she said.
Planning Commission member Vance Agee said everyone on the commission did a deep dive to help draft the ordinance with respect to being technically, financially, legally, and environmentally correct and accurate.
“We’ve assessed it with federal, state, and local laws rules and regulations and cross-referenced them to be sure that it was a thorough document. It is my opinion that when the county’s own insurance policy says it will not pay any liability claims for any 14 heavy metals and forever chemicals, that’s a good place to start,” he said.
Agee said any testing is after the fact.
“When we have known toxic chemicals in advance, I don’t want anybody coming back, say 20 years from now, ‘We’re sorry, here’s you some money.’ We know in advance. Prevent it, protect the environment, the natural resources. It will then protect the citizens from any forthcoming health hazards as a result of allowing any toxic chemicals to come into this county,” Agee said.
Andy Welch, director of development for RIC Energy, a renewable energy developer, said the company is interested in investing in the county.
“First off, I’d like to ask, and I’m not sure of the schedule, but we would have the opportunity to submit written comments. Unfortunately after asking several times, we got a copy of this bill about 5 o’clock on Friday, so we’d like to give more detail,” he said.
Welch said he appreciates the time that was put into the bill and agrees with the comments that a bill is needed to protect the county, but shouldn’t go beyond that purpose and start telling landowners what they can and can’t do with their land.
“I think that’s a pretty consistent belief of this county board,” he said.
Welch also asked everyone to look into and understand what crystal and silicone panels are made of and their history.
“It’s actually that type of panel that we use on our projects. It has no history of contamination, and that’s not a coincidence or luck, it’s because the components of them are not toxic, the heavy metals that are concerned from thin-filmed solar or other types are not in this type. We’re talking about silicone, we’re talking about glass, we’re talking about aluminum, these are not toxic, they are not water soluble, they do not leach,” he said.
