Two legal cases filed against the County to overturn the “solar” zoning ordinance amendment were recently resolved. Read the Full Story >>
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Concerns About Preserving Farmland
The farmland protection effort is not just about keeping the land bucolic — it’s about preserving farming as an activity. Read the Full Story >>
Blake Solar Project Receives Multiple Environmental Violation Notices
The Blake industrial solar facility near Charles Town has received numerous violation notices involving stormwater runoff. Read the Full Story >>
Jefferson County Commission Has A Backlog Of Unfinished Business
The agendas for the next few meetings will likely be contentious, as the Commission addresses some of the complex issues left unresolved over the past few months. Read the Full Story >>
New High-Voltage Transmission Line Proposed To Cross Jefferson County
PJM is proposing to construct a new 500 kV transmission line through Jefferson County by 2027. The new line would be built alongside the existing 500 kV line. Read the Full Story >>
Changes Underway in Jefferson County
A lot of the articles in the June 2023 issue touch on change (we didn’t plan it that way, it just happened — a sign of the times). Read the Full Story >>
Fourth Solar Project Comes to Jefferson County
The concept plan for the Flowing Springs Farm project proposes a solar panel installation on 660 acres adjacent to the Aspen Greens and Beallair subdivisions northeast of Charles Town. Read the Full Story >>
Questions for Solar Projects
The County Commission discussed permit fees for solar projects at its July 21 meeting. The commissioners discussed a range of fees, with Commissioner Jane Tabb proposing $700,000 to ensure the County covers its review and inspection costs while Commissioner Steve Stolipher suggested a cap of $75,000. Projects of similar size in nearby jurisdictions pay permit fees ranging from $700,000 to $1,400,000. The Commission decided to defer a decision and requested staff to provide further research and recommendations to be presented at a future meeting (Aug 4 or Aug 18). Read the Full Story >>
A Timeline Of Zoning For Solar
Jefferson County began to amend its zoning ordinance to allow for utility-scale solar in 2020. The process has had several setbacks, but a vote by the County Commission on April 5, 2022 has restarted the amendment process. Read the Full Story >>
Public Hearing on Solar Zoning — June 9
The Jefferson County Commission has scheduled a public hearing and possible vote on June 9 at 9:30 am for a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance that would allow processing of applications for [“industrial scale”] solar energy facilities as a principal permitted use [“by-right”] in all areas of Jefferson County inside the Urban Growth Boundary and Preferred Growth Area noted in the current Comprehensive Plan. Read the Full Story >>
Court Ruling Undoes Zoning Amendment For Industrial Solar
On August 16, Judge Debra McLaughlin, in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, issued a ruling that invalidated the text amendment ZTA1903 to the Jefferson County zoning ordinance. The now-invalidated amendment was written to allow development of utility-scale solar power facilities as a principal permitted use in rural, residential growth and other open lands in the county. Read the Full Story >>
Tracking Solar Installations
During the discussions of the now-invalidated zoning amendment, several citizens expressed concern that the broad expansion of the amendment to include by-right development of industrial solar in rural and residential growth zones would open up most of the county as potential sites for these facilities. Read the Full Story >>
A Long View Of The Landscape
Red barns (such as the one in Meyerstown, above) are an iconic symbol of the rural landscape across the country — testaments to the effort of the individuals who built them, who used them, who maintained them. Preserved seems an odd word to apply to these structures, intended originally to be working components of agricultural operations. Read the Full Story >>
Connecting Solar In Jefferson County
The Observer spoke with several energy industry professionals with experience in the development and management of utility-scale energy projects to understand the general context for the types of large-scale solar projects being proposed for Jefferson County. We also researched the specific topography of the local power grid and land to understand both the potential and constraints for these types of solar projects in Jefferson County. Read the Full Story >>
A Look At Rural Zoning In Jefferson County
While it’s common to think of land designated with rural zoning as reserved for agriculture, it’s really a category with many allowed uses, not all directly related to agriculture. Read the Full Story >>