Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Comment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents urge supervisors to uphold solar ban and raise transmission-line concerns for data centers
Summary
Two residents used public comment to urge the board to keep restrictions on large-scale solar and to warn that data-center transmission lines and substations will affect nearby properties; speakers said prior denials and a repealed ordinance reflect county sentiment against utility-scale solar in certain areas.
Mary Hodge of the Bowling Green District and Julia Yandura of the Mattaponi District addressed the board during public comment, urging supervisors to maintain restrictions on utility-scale solar and to consider the local impacts of data-center transmission lines.
Hodge said she had previously spoken at meetings when Urban Grid and others proposed large solar projects and thanked the board for denying permits and for repealing an ordinance that allowed certain battery energy storage systems. She said postcards and events sponsored by solar developers misled residents and public officials and described tree clearing in Woodford by a landowner whose prior solar permit had been denied.
"Please continue to not allow yourselves to be pandered or lied to at the expense of tax paying and voting citizens," Hodge said.
Yandura, who identified herself as a landowner directly affected by planned transmission lines for data centers, said transmission lines and substations are not confined to existing rights-of-way and that property owners very near a proposed line can lack standing to request compensation if the line is not on their property. She said she and a neighbor filed as "per se" in a case related to transmission routing and that the proposed line had been planned to run within 90 feet of a neighbor’s front door.
"The transmission line was planned to go within 90 feet of my neighbor's front door," Yandura said, asking the board to update planning maps of open data-center applications and to consider electrical-utility impacts for every data-center proposal.
Neither comment produced an immediate board action; the speakers asked staff and supervisors to continue to monitor applications and to ensure planning staff provide updated maps and information to residents.
Ending
The chair closed the public-comment period after the two speakers and said staff would continue to track applications and provide updates where relevant.
