Magistrate Marty Kinslow speaks during the first reading of the proposed solar ordinance. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Four magistrates on the Barren County Fiscal Court voted to pass the first reading of ordinance 695, which relates to future solar energy system developments.
The Barren County ordinance requires, among other things, a setback “of no less” than 1,000 feet from “nonparticipating properties and rights-of-way,” which is lowered from the originally proposed 2,000-foot setback. Magistrate Tim Coomer said he’d like to see an amendment added to the ordinance that would allow for closer setbacks if the adjacent property owner agreed.
“If [the nonparticipating, adjacent landowner] wanted to make the variance shorter they could allow that if they agree to a contract…which would have to go with the land,” Coomer said. “They could sign a contract saying ‘you can come closer to [the property].'”
Magistrate Jeff Botts said it “was a good idea.”
County Attorney Mike Richardson explained to the magistrates that they could either vote on the first reading and add the amendment to the ordinance before the second reading or wait to vote until this caveat was added. The seven magistrates opted to go ahead and vote on the ordinance assuming the additional language would be added before its passage.
Magistrates Tim Durham, Tim Coomer, Marty Kinslow and Brad Groce voted in support of the additional requirements set forth in the proposed ordinance while Magistrates Botts, Ronnie Stinson and Derek Pedigo voted against.
Voicing his support, Kinslow asked others to “be a patriot” and compromise as this ordinance was a compromise between differing views.
“Basically what this is all over is we got one group that doesn’t like the looks of what the county is going to be and their viewpoint is in opposition to the landowners, who, by the very definition of the word, do with the land what they want, and then we’ve got the view that no one really wants the land to disappear; you have to balance [the views] with the energy needs in the future,” Kinslow said. “What we are being asked to do is balance all that. Make a compromise; that’s the key word.”
“We need to look at the [energy needs of the] future,” Kinslow added. “In 1970 the population in Barren [County] was 28,000, today it’s 46,000…I guess what I’m getting at with solar is yeah it’ll make things look different, but different is not always bad; that’s what I call progress. In a nutshell, we are going to have to compromise. You don’t get to tell your neighbor what to do except within the law.”
As Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd said previously this ordinance would not affect the Wood Duck Solar project.
The next Barren County Fiscal Court meeting is scheduled for May 6 at 9 a.m.
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