Planning commission debates solar farm size limits; staff to draft regulations

Shawnee County planning commissioners spent an extended April 14 work session discussing proposed regulations for solar energy conversion systems, focusing on parcel size, setbacks, decommissioning requirements and battery-storage safety. Commissioners gave staff direction to prepare draft regulations and signaled intent to ask the Board of County Commissioners to extend the county’s moratorium while rules are drafted and reviewed.

Joanie, planning staff, framed the trade-offs: smaller parcel caps make projects easier to site near homes but limit the ability to achieve a commercially viable one-megawatt installation; larger parcel caps allow utility-scale projects but increase potential impacts. "The smaller the parcels are with solar energy conversion systems, then obviously you have fewer panels, arrays," Joanie said during the discussion. Commissioners debated limits ranging from 10–50 acres up to several hundred acres and discussed examples from neighboring counties.

Participants cited local and regional precedents.…