Cumberland County commissioners deny Fayetteville PWC solar farm rezoning after neighbor concerns

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on May 19 denied a conditional rezoning request by the Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) to build a solar farm on roughly 44–45 acres east of Ramsey Street near Carvers Falls Road.

The request sought to rezone the property from Planned Neighborhood Development (PND) to A-1 Conditional (agricultural conditional zoning) to allow a solar panel “farm” to serve the municipal utility. Ross Howard, the county’s director of planning, told commissioners staff recommended approval with conditions including a roughly 50-foot streetscape buffer, perimeter plantings, a wood stock fence and interior barbed-wire security fencing, limits on lighting and restrictions on uses to agricultural and limited grazing to control vegetation.

The utility’s engineers and project representatives described steps they said would address neighbors’ concerns. David Deshaun, director of engineering for Fayetteville PWC, said the site…