Nash County OKs ground-mounted solar panels

kripley.enterprise@wilsontimes.com

Nash County commissioners devoted much of their monthly meeting Monday to zoning issues, establishing new rules to allow ground-mounted residential solar panels and temporary campsites for construction workers.

Both changes, following required public hearings, required approving amendments to Nash County’s unified development ordinance recommended by the county’s planning department and the planning board. Both changes passed unanimously after much discussion.

The first amendment was requested by Gene Granelle on behalf of Energy Conservation Solutions, Inc. to “permit accessory roof-mounted, integrated and ground-mounted accessory solar panel arrays in all zoning districts subject to development standards.”

The county has long allowed roof-mounted solar panels on homes, but the ordinance made no specific provision for ground-mounted accessory solar panel arrays.

“This amendment proposes the adoption of new standards for smaller-scale solar installations designed to supplement the energy requirements of residents or businesses located on the same property,” county planning director Nancy Nixon told the board. “Large-scale solar farm requirements are not affected by the proposal.”

The adopted standards limit the size of the ground arrays to no more than 50 percent of the footprint of the main building on the same lot and the height to a maximum of 10 feet. The arrays must be placed at the rear of a structure and shall not require adjacent property owners to alter their structures or foliage “to guarantee solar access to the proposed array.”

“I would want my neighbors to continue what they do on their property,” agreed Commissioner Wayne Outlaw.

The second text amendment, submitted by Orpha Gene Watson, adds a new use, “Temporary Major Construction Campground/RV Park” to the county’s table of permitted uses and establishes development standards for the use.

The amendment permits up to 10 camping or RV spaces in General or Rural Commercial districts for 12 months, with possible extensions, to house workers employed on a temporary major construction project benefiting the county.

“Nash County staff have received a number of inquiries during the past months concerning temporary housing arrangements for workers who will be employed to work on construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in 2018-20,” Nixon said.

“Prior construction projects have not produced requests for this type of housing accommodation,” she said. “Future major construction projects may require specifically skilled workers not available in the local workforce during the construction period.”

The amendment was necessary, Nixon said, because the county ordinance only required permanent campgrounds and did not cover temporary sites. The standards for permanent campgrounds are more stringent than those necessary for a temporary campground, she said.

“People coming in to work on the pipeline travel all over the country do these jobs,” Watson told commissioners. “This pipeline is coming 2 miles from my farmland and this is another way for me to try to get something out of it.”

The amendment and standards were approved by the planning staff and planning board, but commissioners became mired in discussion — and confusion — over a last-minute alternative proposed by the staff to require a conditional-use permit that would bring each request before the county board to determine if the project qualified as a “major construction project” or was warranted as an “extraordinary circumstance.” It could also be used in the cases of disaster response, she said, giving the board “a little more flexibility.”

Commissioners decided to stick with the original request, establishing the use and standards but not requiring a conditional-use permit.

In another major zoning action, following a long and heated public hearing, commissioners rejected a request by property owners Doris and Oliver Worthington and developer Cecil Williams to rezone a 48.79 tract of land on the north side of Jordan Road near the airport from R-30 residential to R-15 residential.

The planning board, staff and surrounding landowners objected to the request as constituting spot zoning not compatible with the county’s long-term development plan. Commissioners agreed, rejecting not only the original request but also a compromise request to rezone the property to a larger R-20 residential zone that the Worthingtons and Williams argued would be compatible with adjacent properties.