Council denies rezoning request
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 2, 2016 1:46 PM
The Goldsboro City Council voted down a rezoning proposal on Monday night that would have allowed for the construction of a solar farm off of Thoroughfare Road by Heights Solar Farm, LLC.
The item initially appeared as a consent agenda item, with the recommendation that the council not approve the plans for the solar farm.
During the council's work session, the council voted to move the item off of the consent agenda and mark it as an item requiring individual action.
The motion to pull the item from the council's consent agenda and reclassify it as an item requiring individual action was made by District 2 council member Bill Broadaway, and seconded by District 6 council member Gene Aycock.
Monday night's vote on the matter was unconventional. If a council member voted in favor of the agenda item, they were voting to disallow the solar farm. If a council member voted against the measure, they were voting in favor of the solar farm.
Council members Bill Broadaway, Mark Stevens, Gene Aycock and David Ham voted to disallow the solar farm, while council members Bevan Foster, Antonio Williams and Mayor Chuck Allen voted to allow the solar farm.
Aycock said the area on Thoroughfare Road did not need the added stress of a solar farm.
"Two new houses have been built on Thoroughfare Road, and that's the first new structures that have been built on Thoroughfare Road, to my knowledge, in the past 40 years," Aycock said. "They're both nice houses, and I think they're planning to improve that neighborhood. They've got a lot going against them. They're right next to the train tracks, they're right next to four run down turkey houses, and I just don't want to put any more burden on them. I'm all in favor of solar farms, I just don't want them inside the city limits, I'll be honest."
The solar farm was initially recommended for approval by the city's planning commission, but city planning staff reversed the recommendation in favor of disallowing the solar farm's construction.
The staff's reasoning was that the solar farm did not fit in with the city's comprehensive land use plan for the area, which states that the area is best suited for medium density residential development.
Outside of that guideline, the solar farm was proven by several experts to be environmentally safe and economically sound, in that it would cause no adverse affects to health or property values.
The solar farm would also have been constructed in two separate Seymour Johnson Air Force Base flight paths. A solar glare study was conducted, and it was found the solar farm would have caused no issues for planes flying overhead.
But, regardless of this, community members in the area where it would have been constructed were against its development. A representative of the neighborhood, Peter Stewart, came to the first public hearing on the matter at the last council meeting of December to speak in opposition of the measure.
At the next public hearing on the issue, held in January, several experts and representatives of the company that would have built the solar farm spoke in support of its development.
But, following Monday night's vote, the solar farm will not be allowed to proceed.