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Planning committee backs sending zoning-code cleanup, including new solar rules, to council
Summary
The Chesterfield County Planning and Zoning Committee voted to forward a revised draft of Section 156 to the planning commission and full council, after debating solar decommissioning timing, mobile-home provisions and site-plan requirements. Committee members described the changes as clarifications rather than major policy shifts.
The Chair convened the committee and the group voted to send a revised draft of Section 156 of the county code to the planning commission and full council for approval. A motion to forward the draft was made and seconded and carried on a voice vote.
Staff described the changes as largely editorial and clarifying, converting some mandatory terms and specifying authorities (for example, replacing references to public works with the building codes office in certain approval steps). The staff member said the draft also codifies buffer-zone expectations for solar farms and updates lot-size and density language "to reflect that" the committee had previously discussed.
Committee members spent most of the discussion on technical clarifications — including when a decommissioning bond must be posted for solar projects, what to do with underground wiring at end of life, and how to treat older manufactured homes. The Chair summarized the session as a cleanup effort intended to add "guardrails" without starting over: the committee recommended the revised draft to council with a formal motion that carried by voice vote.
Next steps: the committee's recommendation will accompany the draft when staff forwards it to the planning commission and then to full council for a final decision.
