BY KARISSA MILLER

After nearly a three-hour public hearing on Tuesday evening, the Iredell County Board of Commissioners denied a request to rezone property in northern Iredell County for a proposed solar farm.

The Della White family, represented by applicant Sam Lipman of Finance for Impact, requested that commissioners approve a request to rezone 20 to 30 acres in a 192-acre tract along the western side of 5593 Wilkesboro Highway and Highway 115 from Residential Agricultural to Residential Agricultural Conditional District.

Commissioners called it a very difficult decision before voting 5-0 to deny the request.

“This project is not viable on its own merits if it wasn’t for the subsidies coming from the government,” Commissioner Gene Houpe said. “In my opinion, it doesn’t meet the land use plan and there’s other ways to pay your land taxes. For me, there are other options without negatively impacting others in this county.”

Commissioner Brad Stroud said that he believes in property owner rights, but said that doesn’t mean property owner rights are “untethered.”

“It’s a difficult balance. … I first want to applaud every person in here that conducted themselves very professionally on both sides,” he said.

Power for 675-700 homes

Monica Paici, a representative from Finance for Impact and International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (ICAST), gave a presentation in which she explained the partnership, key project facts and how the project benefits the community.

Finance for Impact and ICAST is a 501c3 nonprofit with 24 years of community clean energy experience. They focus on lowering utility costs, energy resiliency and local economic development.

Paici said the proposed project is a 5 megawatts solar installation that represents a strategic partnership between the Mahler family, Energy United and Finance for Impact.

“It is designed to create clean energy while providing substantial benefits,” she said.

The solar installation, which would sit on a small portion of the property, would generate enough electricity to power 675 to 700 local homes with low-cost renewable energy.

It would be a 20-year partnership, ensuring long-term stability for the community. The Mahler family represents six generations of farming and agriculture stewardship.

“For the community, this project prevents uncontrolled residential development, preserves the agricultural character and supports local farming families,” Paici said.

In closing, she said that the nonprofit has exceeded every legal requirement, demonstrated consistency with the county’s Horizon 2045 plan and addressed community concerns.

Residents voice opposition

With a potential solar farm planned for just miles from their homes in northern Iredell County, a group of local residents, mostly from the New Hope community, filled the meeting room way ahead of the 6 p.m. start time.

Wearing matching green T-shirts that read, “We the people of North Iredell County live here. Solar does not!!!”

During the public hearing, Randy Cass, a fifth-generation resident of New Hope and one of the organizers, said he opposes the solar farm due to concerns of how it will impact the nearby creek, as well as local wildlife.

“We don’t want this. We are happy with our community. You hear about the rezoning and it does impact us,” Cass said. “It’s not conducive. It goes down and is thick and covered and goes right down to a creek right down to people’s homes who have children who play in this creek.”

Cass encouraged the commissioners to come out and see the site.

Speaker Leanna Cisneros told commissioners the community hopes that they will listen to the facts and reality rather than ideology and special interests.

“We have real concerns about solar panel farms. These include fires, toxicity, property values decreasing and water sources drying up,” she said.

She said that solar farms are sold to the public as solutions to green energy, but in reality, there are harmful effects to the community, with some being irreversible.

Speaker Fred Lowry said is sympathetic to the landowners situation because they don’t know how to farm and pay the taxes.

“If you believe this is still the right thing, I would submit that this is not right the place. The topography down to Rocky Creek, there’s certainly potential for problems there. If we have a flood, those panels could wash out,” he said.

Other speakers argued that solar panel projects heavily rely on government subsidies in order to be economically viable. subsidies dry up, they questioned if taxpayers would have to pick up the tab for the remaining years.

In support of solar

Speaker Trevor Mahler, who is the fifth generation resident, spoke in support of the solar field.

As far as safety concerns, the project would be regulated on the county, state and federal level.

He said that one way that his family is trying to be good stewards of the land. They plan on bringing in a second agricultural component by putting sheep on the 20 to 25 acres. He said that they would also get bees because they are good pollinators around solar panels.

“I know the opposition to the project is very loud and willing to come to these meetings…I’ve spoken to several members who are supportive of this idea because of the negative backlash we received,” Mahler said.

“A real common views I’ve heard from several people is if it’s your property you should be able to do what you want,” he added.

Speaker Jamie Mahler said her grandchildren are living on the property.

“I feel my family is very blessed to have this opportunity. What is the point of making a decision and handing it down to future generations if you’re going to ruin it or the community? I’m not going to do anything to harm those precious little kids,” she said.

Jamie Mahler said that her family has received a lot of criticism online and at meetings, but only a few neighbors in the community have reached out to her to talk about their concerns directly.

She said that the board has already approved two solar farms in Iredell County. There are strict regulations in place to protect the environment and people, she added.

“My family have been good neighbors and good stewards all the way down through the years. My first relative landed in New Hope in 1779. We’ve been here for a while. We’ve looked at this opportunity prayerfully,” she said.

Cesar Prieto works with Colite Technologies, which was selected by ICAST to potentially develop the project.

“We all need to also take into account … how much energy does it take to do a chat GPT query. North Carolina is excepted to need eight times more power in the next few years because of data centers, industry and our daily habits,” he said.

“How do we satisfy that need for energy? Solar is part of the solution. It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a solution,” he added.

Chair Bert Connolly said he was pleased with how both sides conducted themselves during the meeting, but said that comments made attacking the landowner and certain planning board members and another was “hitting the bottom of the barrel.”