The Mathews County Planning Commission resoundingly rejected two applications for conditional use permits for solar farms during Tuesday night’s meeting, held in the historic courthouse.

The first application, located on 52.6 acres belonging to the Garrett family at Hudgins and listed under a business trust, WLGEPG Valley View, was rejected unanimously by the commission, with member Donald Morgan absent.

The second parcel, belonging to Robert and Judy Gayle and abutting both John Clayton Memorial Highway and Church Street, was denied on a 5-0 vote, with member Frances Minor abstaining because of a personal relationship with the applicants.

During presentation of the project, planning and zoning staff member Lynn Edwards recommended denial based on challenges the county faces that she said make it unsuitable for utility-scale solar facilities. She said there are extensive areas of poorly-drained soils, along with floodplains, wetlands, and Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act buffers that limit the amount of land available for development. She said that the priorities for the land that is available are residential, commercial and agricultural uses.

“Utility-scale solar installations, often occupying large areas, would introduce industrial-scale infrastructure that conflicts with the small-scale, natural aesthetic the county seeks to preserve,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of the project, Jesse Diamond of New Energy Equity, the company seeking to lease the site and develop it for solar use, said that the project did not, in fact, involve a utility-scale installation. Rather, he said it was a “shared solar” project that would provide power to the local grid and could be metered and used to provide savings to the community.

“Instead of solar on your own house, we can provide it at a discount,” he said.

Diamond projected that around 174 local customers would be able to benefit from the installation and that each customer would save approximately $174 a year, or around 10 percent, on their electrical bill. Those numbers would amount to a total of around $1 million in total savings over the 35-year span of the project, he said.

While people have expressed concerns about what would happen at the end of the 35 years, Diamond said his company is required to decommission the installation at the end at its own cost. In addition, he said New Energy Equity would submit a decommissioning bond to cover the cost should the company fail to do it.

Diamond assured the commission that the solar panels are safe and don’t contain hazardous metals. Instead, they’re made of silica glass, he said, and don’t have hazardous chemicals that could leach out if a hurricane or other natural disaster strikes.

During questioning by commission members, Diamond said that if the company went out of business either the solar farm would be sold or the bond would pay to decommission it. He said that all of the power would be sold to Dominion and that part of the money generated would go to his company and part would go to offset the electrical bills for homeowners who have subscribed, at no cost to the homeowners. While used solar panels can be discarded in landfills, said Diamond, he hopes to see an increased push toward recycling them.

Public comment

Thirteen residents spoke during public comment period, with all but one emphatically expressing disapproval of the project. Mark Zamanian of Cobbs Creek said he had experience with such solar projects while living in his home state of Massachusetts.

“Our experience with the bond is that we got burned more than once,” he said, and he suggested a cash bond rather than a secured bond.

In addition, said Zamanian, almost all such facilities follow with an application to store power, which would involve lithium ion batteries that would be dangerous.

Donald Chandler of Hallieford, said he had never seen a property restored correctly and that the taxpayers would be left holding the bag.

Jim Drummond of Mathews, spoke in favor of the project, saying that solar projects could co-exist in a rural area and that, with Mathews being in a low-lying area, “we want to support all the clean energy we can.”

“Clean and green will slow down sea level rise,” he said.

Bruce Dwyer of Gwynn’s Island, said “this Green New Deal stuff is on its way out” and that “it will be thousands of years before this place floods.”

“A development like this is a fool’s errand,” he said.

Supervisor Dave Jones told commission members that “you will not get my vote on this project” and he touted the benefits of nuclear energy.

“You can’t tell me there won’t be some contamination,” he said of the solar project. “If we start consuming land that can grow vegetation, we lose the ability to grow food. The Green New Deal is dead.”

Attorney Breck Ingles of Gloucester, speaking on behalf of Robert Diggs, who owns property adjacent to the proposed site, said his client was opposed to the project.

Fred Wicker of Grimstead, said that silica, the material used in the solar panels, “is just like asbestos” and that if the panels break, “we will have a problem.” In addition, he said the project would lower property values for property owners nearby.

Others speaking against the project included Christopher Dyer of Mathews, Jackie Wilton of Cobbs Creek, Hudgins property owner Brenda Tompkins Reed of Fort Washington, Maryland, Glenn Wynn of Gwynn’s Island, supervisor Mike Walls, and Ken Childress of Hudgins.

In making a motion to deny the project, commission member Byron Rauch said he wanted to make it clear that he was for personal property rights.

“You should be able to do what you like as long as it doesn’t affect your neighbor,” he said.

He said he personally has solar and “it’s great” and that it reduced his electric bill.

“But when it starts affecting your neighbors, that’s when I have a problem with personal property rights,” he said.

The commission agreed and unanimously supported his motion.

The second public hearing, for a conditional use permit to establish a solar farm on the Gayle property at John Clayton Memorial Highway and Church Street, was also denied.

Speaking against the project were Jones, who said there’s nothing to gain from such projects because Mathews County relies on single-family dwellings for most of its tax revenue; Wicker, who said that a fire at a solar farm is inevitable and would require response from outside fire departments; Zamanian, who said the monthly savings subscribers would receive “doesn’t even buy a tank of gas” and that third-party subscribers would be able to set the rates; and Greta Dyer of Mathews, who said her family had moved all over the U.S. before settling in Mathews and made the plea, “Please don’t make us regret our choice to retire here.” Others speaking against it were Wayne Smith of Mathews, John Craig Lewis of Port Haywood, Richard Moughon of Mathews and Rick Carson of Mathews.

Zoning public hearing—telecommunications facilities

After a public hearing, the commission also voted unanimously to approve a zoning change requested by the Mathews Broadband Advisory Board that will allow telecommunications facilities in the R-2 District, with data poles allowed by right and telecommunications towers allowed after obtaining a conditional use permit.