By Kyana Miller
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore County Council took the first step Monday toward regulating commercial solar farms, approving a bill that places a four-month moratorium on the construction of such facilities until after officials have a chance to study their impact.
The bill, which was introduced on Sept. 19, was approved on a 7-0 vote and included an amendment by Councilman Wade Kach that reduced by four weeks the original six-month freeze on solar facilities that was first proposed.
Under the amended bill, companies or individuals that submitted applications to install solar panels on their land for commercial purposes before Monday’s vote would not be subject to the moratorium.
During the moratorium period, the council will study the economic and environmental effects of solar farms and develop rules to regulate them. Kach said the new regulations should deal with such issues like setback requirements, how large the solar panels can be, and how solar farms would be dismantled after they were no longer needed.
The moratorium will be in place until February. Council members said they hope the temporary freeze on solar farm construction will be beneficial to the farms by setting ground rules and getting all future projects on the same page.
The bill does not affect homeowners seeking to place solar panels on their homes. It also does not impact solar facilities from being installed on federal, state and county land for government use.
The bill comes at a time when local farmers throughout Maryland have been leasing their land to energy producers that want to build solar facilities to take advantage of state policies designed to encourage renewable energy use.
Solar farms are a potential moneymaker for local farmers, some of whom say leasing their land to energy providers will give themanother revenue source that can subsidize their regular agricultural production.
Baltimore County officials were forced to take action on solar farm regulations because businesses began applying for special exceptions to local zoning regulations to install the facilities. To get a special exception, an applicant must get approval from an administrative law judge. Until now, county zoning regulations did not address the installation or demolition of solar facilities.
Kach, whose Third District covers the northern part of the county and is the location of several proposed solar farms, had tried to amend the bill further that would have halted the application process for anyone who had applied to build a solar farm after Oct. 1.
However, other council members were not as sure about establishing retroactively a deadline of Oct. 1. Councilman Julian Jones Jr. and Councilman Tom Quirk expressed concerns about what the sudden change would do to business that had already applied for the special exception.
Jones said Oct. 1 seemed like an arbitrary date. “I’m thinking about the person who has done all this work and then has to rush to get it (the application) in,” Jones said.
In the end, the council voted 4-3 to reject Kach’s amendment to change the application deadline date so as not to “pull the rug out from under” projects that were in the process of submitting their applications.
Instead, the council voted 6-1 to make any applications submitted after the meeting to be subject to the halt in construction. Kach was the only member of the council to oppose this amendment.
Chairwoman Viki Almond said that she believes the administrative law judges who must approve special exceptions to the zoning regulations will be able to accurately sort through applications to determine if the project should be approved.
Although Kach’s amendment was not approved, Jones and Quirk commented on the exceptional work Kach had done to move the bill forward and his work with the community and council to provide education on the issue.