The Blake industrial solar facility stretches across 500 acres at the intersection of Old Charles Town Road and Kabletown Road. The project has been cited for violations multiple times by the WV Department of Environmental Protection.
The Jefferson County Planning Commission voted at its February 20 meeting to have the county’s Planning & Zoning staff review and recommend changes to the zoning ordinance related to permitting of industrial solar facilities. The Planning Commission’s action followed a request from the Jefferson County Commission to review the solar zoning. The Blake industrial solar facility (above) is the first to be permitted under zoning that was adopted in 2022. Members of both the Planning Commission and County Commission expressed concerns that the zoning rules that apply to future solar projects need to do a better job of preserving farmland and minimizing impacts on neighbors.
How Jefferson County preserves its agricultural heritage has been a topic of discussion for several decades. The Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board has been operating for over 20 years. The current director, Liz Wheeler, is retiring this year. In her final annual report, she notes that, as of January 2024, the Board has protected 6,846 acres of farmland, encompassing 58 farms. An additional 5 farms covering 574 acres are expected to be added by the end of the year.
The farmland protection effort is not just about keeping the land bucolic — it’s about preserving farming as an activity, a point noted several times during the ongoing discussion about updates to Jefferson County’s comprehensive plan. While commodity crop farmers find it difficult to compete with large scale farms that can be anywhere across the country (or the world), local farmers who produce for local restaurants and markets continue to find success. Maintaining a local agricultural infrastructure that actually supports farming is an important requirement for them.
By Steve Pearson