Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Solar Project topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents tell York County commissioners they were left out of talks on proposed large solar project
Summary
Several residents urged the board to consider local impacts of a proposed large solar installation, citing dozen-plus nearby homes, extensive fencing and underground collection cables, pile-driving noise, interior roads and possible tax-credit motives.
Several York County residents used the public-comment period to urge commissioners to pay closer attention to the local impacts of a proposed large solar project.
Jim Jackson, a resident who identified his address as Road 2 in Fairmont (Ace Township), said roughly a dozen homes would be directly affected by the project and that many of those households include people of childbearing age. "They haven't included any of those people that are going to be impacted," Jackson said, asking the board to recognize that people who live nearby may not be able to attend hearings and still deserve notice and consideration.
Joanne Jackson of 907 Road 2 in Fairmont provided large-scale comparisons from a Franklin Township, Ohio project and listed physical and construction details she said the board should consider: acres of panels, a 39.3-mile fencing estimate, more than three million feet of underground collection cable, thousands of driven pile supports (each driven 6 to 11 feet deep), and tens of miles of interior access roads requiring tens of thousands of tons of gravel. "This isn't just about harvesting the sun. It's also about harvesting tax credits," Joanne Jackson said.
Another resident, Jim Cludy, asked a procedural question about railroad crossings in the project area and requested the highway superintendent be included in follow-up conversations.
The speakers urged more direct outreach to neighbors who would live near the arrays and asked the board to ensure that construction impacts — noise from pile-driving, large trucks hauling gravel, and long-term fencing and land use changes — are considered before approvals proceed. The board did not take action on the project during this meeting; public comment closed and the commission moved on to other agenda items.
Why this matters: Developers often present large renewable-energy projects at the planning stage. Neighbors cite concerns that include construction noise, altered land use, road and crossing impacts, and changes to visible landscape; the residents' comments ask the board to weigh those local effects explicitly before advancing approvals or related permits.
Next steps: Commissioners will receive zoning-board recommendations in a future meeting following a zoning hearing that staff said will be held locally; any formal application or permit that reaches the county for final approval will return to the board for action.
