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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 decommissioning section. “The commissioners asked that I prepare legislation that was pertaining to decommissioning in specific,” Keeter said. The proposal lays out what a decommissioning plan must include, a cost estimate process, and a timeline for removal and site restoration.
Commission discussion focused on three practical points: whether required visual mitigation around solar compounds should be a full screen or a lighter buffer, how to treat salvage value when setting a bond amount, and which systems should be covered. Commissioners settled on a buffer approach rather than mandatory full screening for systems in the roughly 200-kilowatt to 1-megawatt range; systems above state preemption thresholds remain governed primarily by state siting rules.
On bonding, the draft rejects allowing developers to reduce county bond amounts by claiming salvage value. Keeter told the commission the state allows salvage deductions in some cases, and commissioners expressed concern that a wide salvage deduction could leave the county with insufficient funds to restore a site. The recommended local language therefore asks for a county bond in addition to any state bond and prohibits deducting estimated salvage from the county bond amount.
The draft also proposes regular cost-estimate updates and specified timelines for decommissioning; staff recommended the rule apply to major systems (the staff packet used 200 kW as a working threshold). During discussion commissioners asked staff to consider widening the rule so that larger on-site systems (for example, sizable commercial or agricultural systems used for on-site consumption) are likewise covered; staff said they would prepare language that would make major on-site systems subject to the same decommissioning requirements.
Separately, staff described a complementary idea under development: a county fund modeled on a Queen Anne’s County program that would collect mitigation payments for projects sited on prime agricultural soils and direct the proceeds into farmland preservation. Keeter said commissioners are pursuing follow-up legislation to establish that fund and related fee mechanisms.
The commission voted to give a favorable recommendation to the amended text amendment and to transmit it to the county commissioners for consideration.
