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Commissioners weigh solar limits, decommissioning bonds and farmland protections
Summary
Planning commissioners reviewed MACO draft standards and a county exercise mapping transmission corridors and preservation areas, discussed a 2,000‑acre county cap on utility solar, and raised legal and financial concerns about allowing developers to deduct salvage value when calculating decommissioning bonds.
Caroline County planning commissioners spent a large portion of their September meeting reviewing regional and state-level work on utility-scale solar siting and exploring local strategies to protect prime farmland and preserve county control.
Staff summarized Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) work-group draft standards that suggest prioritizing siting within a two‑mile corridor of major transmission lines. Commissioners asked staff to run a county mapping exercise that layers transmission corridors, preservation areas (wetlands, critical areas, forest‑conservation easements and town growth areas) and buildable urban footprints so the county can quantify urban vs. rural potential acreage and make an evidence-based policy case.
Commissioners said the county…
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