Planning Meeting Summary 10/9/24

The regular monthly planning meeting was held on 10/9. The new solar ordinance draft was available for reviews, and the planning commission and their legal counsel reviewed the solar overlay and ordinance changes. Here is the summary of major changes and the voting to recommend it:

Major changes in ordinance-

1. Glare: more stringent requirements for glare study and acceptable levels of glare to nearby properties and roads

2. Decommissioning: 110% of estimated decommissioning required before construction with a re-evaluation done every 5 years. Salvage value is going to be included in the decommissioning bond, but that will also be up for adjustment every 5 years

3. Vegetation and buffering: maintenance required

4. Soil testing: required per local, state, national requirements

5. Setbacks: 700ft from occupied structures, 100ft from property lines

6. Notification letters to all adjacent property owners and within 1000ft of the development required to be sent by the developer

7. Solar Energy Facilities cannot be build in flood plains or areas or on slopes of 25% or more (this is to reflect the standing steep slope ordinance that Jefferson has in place)

   
   

All planning commission members voted to recommend this to the supervisors. The supervisors may or may not motion to advertise this at their upcoming regular monthly meeting on 10/15 at 7pm. If it is advertised, their will be a special meeting with public comment announced, which will be posted on here.

The current draft of the ordinance can be found on this page under "current solar ordinance."

Updates on solar overlay-

The planning commission tabled the motion to vote on recommending this overlay or not to the supervisors. They are looking at the map in more detail so as to eliminate more parcels based on if they were or weren't strip mined. When and if the map is updated, we will post it.