The Board of Carroll County Commissioners has made a formal attempt to stop development of two community solar projects on agricultural properties in Sykesville.

Commissioners filed petitions to intervene with the Maryland Public Service Commission, allowing them to participate in the legal process, present evidence and attempt to influence the outcome for two proposals — one from Chaberton Solar Sunshine, LLC for a 3.0-megawatt community solar project on 16.5 acres at 940 Fannie Dorsey Road in Sykesville; and one from Spring Valley Solar 1 LLC for a 2.250-megawatt facility on 14.26 acres at 1500 Fannie Dorsey Road in Sykesville.

“They both sit on flat, fertile farmland,” commissioners’ President Ken Kiler said. “They sit too close to the road and there is not enough screening. … We decided to fight these two.”

Kiler, who represents District 2, said that the board will continue to oppose all solar facilities on agricultural land, though “the other ones are on better sites with better screening.”

There are eight separate applications for solar farms on Carroll farmland — in Hampstead, Sykesville and Westminster — filed with the with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Developers of each proposed solar farm are seeking a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to build the solar facilities. Carroll County commissioners voted in 2023 to ban solar facilities from being built on land zoned agricultural in the county, but the state agency has the final say as to whether each application moves forward.

If the state agency grants the required certificates, the county’s zoning restrictions on agricultural land could be disregarded. To address that possibility, the county adopted regulations intended to protect residential neighborhoods near agricultural land where solar farms could be built.

Chris Heyn, director of the county’s Department of Planning and Land Management, said developers of one of the solar projects has asked to meet with the county.

“We received a pre-submittal meeting request for Bear Branch Solar,” Heyn stated in an email Wednesday. “We have not scheduled the meeting with them yet. Following the meeting they will be able to submit their concept plans to us to begin the review process.”

Bear Branch Solar LLC is a 4-megawatt solar farm to be built on a 65-acre property along the eastern side of Route 97 (Littlestown Pike) north of Westminster. That project was granted a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity earlier this month, giving them the authority to construct an energy-generating system or high-voltage transmission line in Maryland, according to a nine-page report from the Public Service Commission.

Another proposed facility, a 2.142-megawatt solar facility between Pleasant Valley Road and Magers Drive in Westminster, will have a virtual hearing March 24 at 6:30 p.m. Elk Development LLC has filed an application to build a facility on 12.22 acres of a 33.17-acre property. A landscape buffer is proposed to shield the solar farm from nearby homes. Ground-mounted systems will not be more than 15 feet above existing grade, the application states.

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