Solar energy systems planned inside the city limits garnered new regulations Tuesday night, when Hopkinsville City Council unanimously approved the final reading of an ordinance decreeing 1,000-foot setbacks from property lines be observed in future 40-acre-plus panel projects.
It didn’t come, however, without some consternation from citizen Marby Schlegel.
Surrounded by solar installations all near her own city property, Schlegel told council members she didn’t want panels brought up to people’s back doors.
However, she also didn’t want such a large variance — roughly the size of “three football fields” — to deter current or future investors from creating clean, sustainable sources of energy, especially with new industry arriving in the region.
He’d eventually vote in favor of the ordinance, but councilman Terry Parker leaned in favor of Schlegel’s concerns.
CDS Executive Director Tom Britton further clarified, however, that in this ordinance, solar projects smaller than 40 acres would be able to adhere to less-restrictive variances.
Britton added that the ordinance wasn’t written specifically to target individual property owners, but instead creates a city-wide blanket, to which Parker rebutted.
Britton reassured that an ordinance like this, and larger solar installations, become a “function of size.” A solar mill that’s 640 acres, he noted, is one square mile.
City council began this process in early October, when public discussion stemmed around the potential arrival of an installation created by BrightNight Power from Louisville.
In that first proposed amendment a month ago, Britton said then these were “fair guidelines for solar energy companies.”
Just last week, Christian County Fiscal Court passed its own solar energy system variance on final reading in response to Mitsubishi subcontractor Oriden — regulating projects be no less than 2,000 feet from county property, unless otherwise agreed upon by all potentially impacted landowners.
