Brunswick County Board of Commissioners ACTION AGENDA ITEM March 19, 2018

Action Item # VII. - 3.

Request that, after the Public Hearing, the Board of Commissioners approve First and Second Readings to amend the solar farm requirements in the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO-18-01).

This proposed Unified Development Ordinance text amendment would provide additional requirements for solar farms including, but not limited to, screening and buffering and a decommissioning plan.

At the Planning Board public hearing on October 9th, three speakers from the solar farm industry expressed concerns regarding the proposed maximum size of 35 acres as well as the provisions in the proposed decommission plan requirement for three-year updates and a financial guarantee for facility removal.  The Planning Board voted to recommend the requirements as proposed, with the exception of changing the maximum size from 35 acres to 50 acres.

This proposed text amendment was then submitted to the Board of Commissioners for review consideration on November 20, 2017. During the public hearing portion of the meeting, several people expressed concerns regarding the Proposed Solar Farm Amendment as it was written. Some of the concerns that were raised included size limitations, the decommissioning plan’s 3-year obligation requirement, and the financial guarantee (bonding). The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to send the Proposed Solar Farm Text Amendment back to the Brunswick County Planning Board for further study.

Planning Staff bought this item to the Planning Board for further study. After discussions and a public hearing, the Planning Board opted to address concerns raised by the public by recommending the following changes to Proposed Solar Farm Text Amendment:

• Eliminate size limitation;
• Eliminate the every 3-year update requirement and require an update upon change of ownership;
• Eliminate the improvement guarantee requirement (Bonding); and
• Require a Special Use Permit for Solar Farms and not by Limited Use.

At their meeting on October 9, 2017, the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the amendments as proposed, with the exception of changing the maximum size from 35 acres to 50 acres. 

Members Present:  Eric Dunham, Joy Easley, Richard Leary, Ron Medlin, Tom Simmons, Troy Price, and Randy Ward

Members Absent:  None

At its meeting on 12-Feb-18, the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the revised text amendment as proposed.

Members Present:  Eric Dunham, Joy Easley, Richard Leary, Ron Medlin, Troy Price, Tom Simmons and Randy Ward.

Members Absent:  None.