AC44 | County Land Conservation Programs + New Solar Ordinance

Posted on by Rob McGinnis

This text was taken from an email sent Jan. 13, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →

Dear Supporter,

Happy New Year! PEC, and many of you, kicked off 2025 by advocating for conservation programs at the Jan. 8 Board of Supervisors AC44 comp plan update work session on the Rural Area Land Use chapter. This email will reflect on that work session after giving an overview of the draft Solar Ordinance which will be introduced tomorrow, Tues., Jan. 14 at a public hearing during the Albemarle Planning Commission’s meeting.

As we reflected on the past year and our successes and challenges during the AC44 comp plan update, it’s clear local activism makes a difference. Stay tuned and share this email with those interested in engaging with Albemarle’s future and sign up for the County’s alerts to hear it from them first. 

Planning Commission Public Hearing:
Solar Energy and Battery Energy Storage Facilities Draft Ordinance
Tues., Jan. 14 @ 6 p.m.
Lane Auditorium, County Office Building
401 McIntire Road

Voice your support for rooftop and parking lot solar policies like these seen in Baltimore, Md. in the draft Solar Ordinance. Photo by Rob McGinnis/PEC. 

New Solar Ordinance

Albemarle County has drafted a Solar Energy and Battery Storage Ordinance. It will go before the Planning Commission Jan. 14. PEC is supportive of solar and recognizes both the need for clean, renewable energy and the challenges to ensuring we achieve it without adverse impacts to land and water resources in our communities.

PEC continues to make distributed solar a priority in our effort to shape and advance Virginia’s clean energy future. We believe that solar on rooftops, brownfields, and parking lots, as well as smaller scale agrivoltaics (solar arrays + agriculture), and long- and short-duration battery storage that can increase the efficiency of renewables, should be priorities for the Commonwealth.

We have been advocates for best practices, such as siting large-scale ground-mounted solar array facilities to avoid critical natural resources such as prime agricultural soils and forests and protecting water resources during construction through enhanced erosion and sediment control measures. 

Other best practices include minimizing mass grading of sites through the use of all terrain trackers that allow for solar arrays to be installed on terrain without significant grading of the land, the operation of agriculture and solar energy generation on the same site called agrivoltaics, and land transfer agreements for agrivoltaics projects, which place the land under conservation easement to ensure the land remains in agricultural use after a solar facility reaches the end of its operational life.

The County’s staff report states the following major elements of the proposed ordinance:

  • Defines Solar Energy Facility, Battery Energy Storage Facility and terms used to regulate these facilities.
  • Allows and defines accessory solar and battery energy storage by right in all districts, which the existing ordinance does not directly address and are thus permitted by interpretation. 
  • Allows solar energy installations to be permitted by right over existing impervious areas.
  • Allows up to 21 acres of solar energy panels on existing parcels by right in the Rural Area. Only 21 acres of panel zone is permitted on existing parcels, no matter their size and a division of land does not increase the panel zone area allowed.
  • Requires a special use permit for larger scale solar in the Rural Areas zoning district. Currently any facility over one half acre requires a special use permit.
  • Allows larger scale battery energy storage systems by special use permit in the Rural Areas zoning district and Industrial districts. The existing ordinance does not address battery energy storage, though large systems have been permitted by special use permit when associated with a solar energy system in the Rural Areas.
  • Establishes regulations for height, fencing, setbacks from property lines and streets, in addition to setbacks from other facilities and screening.
  • Requires facilities over two acres must be Virginia Pollinator Smart certified.
  • Restricts facilities within high scoring forest blocks, as identified in the Comprehensive Plan.
  • Establishes decommissioning requirements for projects requiring a special use permit.

Though there are elements of the draft ordinance that we support, we do have concerns. All of the comments below pertain to ground-mounted solar energy projects where energy is transmitted into the electrical utility’s distribution and transmission lines.

PEC’s Recommendations

  • All solar facilities with panel areas larger than 10 acres should be permitted by special use permit. Given the potential for adverse impacts on resources and rural communities, a special use permit process would allow for community engagement and County-required conditions that could avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts.
  • Mass grading should be avoided to the greatest extent feasible in order to protect soils and reduce the potential for soil erosion and sediment transport into water resources.
    • Require applicant-funded, third-party inspection of erosion and sediment control measures for projects exceeding 10 acres of panel area, during and after construction and until permanent vegetative cover is established. Inspection reports submitted to the County.
  • A vegetation management plan should be required for solar sites which would address management of invasive plants, ensure healthy plants, and improve biodiversity.
    • Vegetative screening should be required for all projects that involve interconnections to distribution and transmission lines. 
  • Buffer plantings should only include local/regional native plants, with limited non-invasive, non-native plant exceptions based on County review and approval of a justification for the exception(s).
    • Include requirements that invasive species listed on the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation lists shall not be permitted.
  • Dual-use solar or agrivoltaics should be permitted which could allow for livestock grazing or crop production on solar fields.
  • Sites should be required to obtain the Commonwealth’s Gold Certified Virginia Pollinator Smart status within three years of issuance of a building permit for projects with panel zones of 2 acres or greater. However, the optional vegetation management plan should be required.
  • Require a viewshed study via GIS and computer-generated visual simulations of proposed screening and buffering for projects with panel areas greater than 10 acres.

This ordinance will be reviewed by the Planning Commission before heading to the Board of Supervisors for their review and eventual adoption. Detail is required to be able to protect the Rural Area, while adding renewable energy infrastructure for a clean energy future. We will see this topic cross referenced in AC44’s Community Facilities and Resilient Communities chapters, yet to be released.

Submit Comments on the Draft Solar Ordinance:

Voice your interests at and before the upcoming Planning Commission meeting:

  • Submit Comments in Writing: Public comments will be accepted in writing at the meeting, or by emailing comments to [email protected] and copying [email protected].
  • Speak at the Meeting: Members of the public have the opportunity to speak directly to the Planning Commission for three minutes during the public comment period, either virtually or in person. 

We hope to see you at the meeting or hear that you submitted comments.

a green sign that says "This property is forever protected with a conservation easement" on a fence
Land under conservation easement is permanently conserved. Photo by Hugh Kenny/PEC.

Draft Rural Area Land Use Chapter

The Board of Supervisors reviewed the draft Rural Area Land Use chapter at a work session on Jan. 8. Prior to the meeting, PEC advocated strongly for strengthening Albemarle’s conservation programs. Our outreach initiative also led some 65 County residents to write to the Supervisors in support and another eight to speak at the work session. As a result, the Board held a wide-reaching discussion about the programs and their perceived merits and drawbacks. 

One of the wins that came out of that discussion was that the County eliminated their proposal to explore a cap on the percentage of land that can be protected through conservation easements in the County — one of PEC’s priority recommendations! We argued that there should be no limit on the widespread public benefits of permanently conserved land that include climate resilience, flood mitigation, wildlife habitat, air and water quality protection, and viewsheds that contribute to a $1 billion tourism industry.

Upcoming AC44 Comp Plan Update Dates

  • Wed., Jan. 22: AC44 Board of Supervisors Work Session: Draft Environmental Stewardship Chapter
  • Tues., Jan. 28: AC44 Planning Commission Work Session: Draft Parks & Recreation Chapter
  • Wed., Feb. 19: AC44 Board of Supervisors Work Session: Draft Parks & Recreation Chapter
  • TBD Feb.: Updated Development Area Land Use & Rural Area Land Use Chapters & Growth Management Policy

Thank you!

Rob McGinnis, PLA FASLA
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Albemarle & Greene Counties
[email protected]
(434) 962-9110