Lengthy public comments and commissioner questions follow proposed commercial solar zoning changes; commissioners consider sending revisions back to planning

The Board of Commissioners heard extensive discussion and public comment on a proposed commercial solar energy system amendment to the county's unified development ordinance (UDO) during the Aug. 31 meeting. Commissioners and planning staff debated scrivener corrections, setback distances, screening requirements, decommissioning standards, and whether to include pasture acreage in the calculation of a countywide cap on land removed from production.

Planning commission leadership explained two corrections made to the draft: (1) the countywide cap for acreage taken out of crop production had been intended to count all acreage removed from production (not only fenced-in panel area) and was set at 4,000 acres; and (2) material safety data sheets (MSDS) for solar panels should be submitted with building-permit applications rather than with the initial solar-field application. Warren, identified as president of the planning commission, described those as scrivener errors…