Gloucester supervisors reaffirmed the current real estate tax rate at 69.5 cents per $100 of assessed value during a meeting Tuesday night, an action that was necessitated because of an increase in property value as a result of the reassessment process which had not been completed prior to adoption of the budget.

Supervisors also approved two Conditional Use Permits for a pair of solar energy projects in the county—a 20 megawatt facility on Nursery Lane off Route 17 and a much smaller 1 megawatt facility off Route 14 near Cow Creek.

On the tax matter, the increase in value led to an increase in income the county will receive from the real estate tax, despite there being no change to the rate.

Earlier this year, the board approved a budget for fiscal year 2021 that was made by leveraging the real estate tax, knowing the assessed value had increased.

During Tuesday’s meeting, board chair Phillip Bazzani motioned to adopt a lower rate of $0.659, but the motion was not seconde...