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Worcester County planning commission backs updated solar rules, including decommissioning and visual buffers
Summary
The Planning Commission voted to recommend a text amendment tightening local rules for solar energy systems, adding a county-level decommissioning regimen, a visual buffer requirement, and measures to address bonding and salvage-value concerns.
The Worcester County Planning Commission voted to recommend a text amendment to county solar regulations that adds a local decommissioning standard, a visual-buffer requirement for mid-size farms and clarifies how bonding and salvage value are handled.
The commission’s recommendation, made by staff and approved at the Aug. 7 meeting, covers systems from 200 kilowatts up to thresholds controlled by state law. Planning staff said the change is intended to align county code with recent state law and to fill gaps not addressed by state siting preemption for larger systems.
Staff member Miss Keeter, presenting the draft ordinance on behalf of the commissioners, told the commission the rewrite pulls together several changes enacted in recent years and adds a new…
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