The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 on Wednesday (23 Feb 2022) to veto a solar project special-use permit. Pennsylvania-based Dynamic Energy Solutions had proposed to build a large-scale solar energy facility outside the town of Dayton. The project would have been built on 22 acres of a 50.7-acre parcel on the west side of John Wayland Highway southwest of Huffman Drive.
Both the Dayton Mayor and the Dayton Town Manager asked the Board to reject the project. About 50 people attended the meeting, with 5 people speaking against the project; no one spoke in favor.
By Kellen Stepler, Daily News-Record, 24 Feb 2022
The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Wednesday to deny a request for a special-use permit for Dynamic Energy Solutions to build a large-scale solar energy facility outside Dayton.
The project would have encompassed about 22 acres of a 50.7-acre parcel on the west side of John Wayland Highway southwest of Huffman Drive.
Chair Sallie Wolfe-Garrison and Supervisors Bill Kyger, Rick Chandler and Michael Breeden voted to deny the request, with Supervisor Dewey Ritchie dissenting.
The board reconvened the public hearing for Dynamic Energy’s request Wednesday after it first went before supervisors in December. At that time, Wolfe-Garrison said the request was submitted before the county codified its solar ordinance, and the board continued the public hearing until Jan. 26 to give the applicant time to hold a mandated community meeting.
However, Dynamic Energy requested to move the continuation of the public hearing until Wednesday. The Pennsylvania-based company held the community meeting at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School in Dayton on Tuesday evening, which Dayton Mayor Cary Jackson said Wednesday night did not give enough time for residents and town officials to discuss the proposal.
”One of the issues is really the lack of communication that this group has had with the town,” Jackson said.
Derek Sheehan, a representative of Dynamic Energy, presented to the board adjustments it has made, including a buffer and a landscaping plan. Nick Kirkland from North Carolina-based Kirkland Appraisals told supervisors that values of properties surrounding the proposed solar farm would not decrease.
“We have updated our site plans to comply with the ordinance,” Sheehan said.
Both Jackson and Dayton Town Manager Angela Lawrence asked the board to deny the project. Five speakers out of about 50 people in attendance voiced opposition to the project during the public comment period, and no one spoke in favor.
”My family and I are very close to this project, and we don’t want to live beside this solar farm because of the beauty that it takes away from the landscape,” said Shawn Rhodes. “We simply do not want to step out of our house and see panels littering the field.”
One of the concerns board members had was that the proposed facility would have been located in Dayton‘s annexation area for future growth.
”I would think that if we were to move forward with this, we would be deprecating that agreement and that trust as well, and that greatly concerns me,” Kyger said.
Supervisors said the annexation agreement between the county and the town was made in 1990, and Ritchie said that in 32 years, the town has not sought to bring the property within its limits.
”How long would you want this individual to stay into that restriction, of not being able to properly make on his land what he has an opportunity to do?” Ritchie asked.
Breeden said a solar farm is located in his district near East Rockingham High School. That property fits well, he said, and students are learning from it. But not all projects are a good fit, he said.
”One size doesn’t fit all,” he said.
(The remainder of the article covered other county business.)
