Nottoway supervisors debate smaller setbacks, buffers and a cap as they prepare public hearing on solar ordinance

Nottoway County supervisors spent a multi-hour work session reviewing a proposed solar ordinance and directed staff to prepare advertised amendments and a public hearing after discussion about setbacks, buffers, decommissioning and a possible cap on county land used for utility-scale solar.

The discussion focused first on setbacks: an earlier planning-commission draft had included 800-foot setbacks in several locations and a compromise version reduced some distances to 500 feet. Supervisors and invited speakers said 800 feet was widely seen as excessive and suggested moving many setbacks to roughly 300 feet for roads and adjacent property lines while preserving a larger distance from habitable dwellings. The board debated lowering the current 1,500-foot distance from a habitable dwelling; one supervisor proposed 1,200 feet as an alternate that could be advertised for public comment.

The work session included multiple technical and policy points raised by invited industry speakers and counsel. Greg Kelly, introduced himself as a solar developer, and urged supervisors to weigh the county's interconnection capacity when assessing how much solar could realistically be built: "A lot of your fears would naturally go…