At their November 17th meeting, Rockingham’s Board of Supervisors approved a revised version of the ordinance based on the board-appointed solar committee’s work and planning commission’s August recommendation.
The board-approved ordinance retains the county’s preference for locating solar development in areas already developed with commercial and industrial land uses. It still encourages dual use of the land (such as solar plus grazing or solar over a parking area) and discourages development on prime soils on agriculturally-zoned land and historic sites.
However, while supervisors opted to retain the cumulative cap of 1,800 acres in the county, they adjusted the 60-acre per-site cap on agriculturally-zoned land to allow for up to 450 acres of the cumulative cap to be projects between 50 and 150 acres, essentially allowing for three larger projects of up to 150 acres each. All other projects on agriculturally-zoned land are capped at 50 acres.
You can view the full ordinance language here and the policy here.
(Photo © Hugh Venables cc-by-sa/2.0)