Meeting: Proposed Solar Plant – Wed, Jan 17 @ 6:15p
Community Meeting: Proposed Solar Plant
Wed, Jan 17 @ 6:15p at Galesville Community Center
916 West Benning Rd, Galesville, MD 20765
Note: This meeting is not at Galesville Memorial Hall,
but rather at the Galesville Community Center on West Benning Rd.
Do You Want This to be a Commercial / Industrial Site?
Letter of Introduction from Brad Harris:
Neighbors and Friends,
Please spread the word to everyone that can participate and help our Deale / West River Community recommend a more appropriate/alternative location for Commercial Utility-Scale Solar Power Plant (invitation attached). It is also interesting that many of my neighbors that I have talked to did not get this invitation so please help spread the word.
More Detail Below with Pictures:
Our West River / Deale / South County community would like to invite you to a community meeting to help communicate to Turning Point Energy Land Holdings and Jerry Walker our county councilman that our community needs to be protected from years of poorly-regulated Commercial/Industrial Development and that we feel there are more appropriate locations for Commercial Utility Solar. We are proposing an alternative more appropriate location for the Utility Scale Solar Plant that Turning Point Energy (Colorado) is proposing at 5403 Nutwell Sudley Rd, Deale MD across from Sudley Landfill. We are recommending a more appropriate location like the Cap of Sudley Landfill, power line fields, or other brownfields instead of the proposed site (5403 Nutwell Sudley Rd, Deale, MD) that is currently productive farmland and a beautiful part of our rural historic culture on the border of Deale and West River, MD in South County.
We feel that our small rural community ~ 20 homes (5 historic homes, 1 historic barn), historic views will be negatively impacted, rural scenic roads that are traveled by bikers and weekend travelers visiting beautiful South County will be negatively impacted and all commercial/industrial parcels (pictured below) will be adjoined if this TPE Commercial Utility Solar Power Plant is approved in this location. We also feel that South County Farmland should not be used for Commercial Utility Solar Power when there are other more appropriate locations available (in this case the cap of Sudley Landfill across the street). Our community would like to preserve it’s rural historic culture and we feel that our community deserves a hearing to determine where these large development projects are located in our community now that we have been blemished by Sudley Landfill, 2 cell towers, a 20 acre dredge pond constructed without community involvement in 2017 (picture below). We need to have more control of the future development of our community especially when deciding on large scale development like Utility-Scale Solar Power Plants that sell power to BGE or any other large utility.
There is no requirement for a de-commissioning plan to guarantees that this land will go back to agricultural land after 25 years of commercial use and without this guarantee it is not likely it will go back to agricultural land in the future.
Please participate in at Galesville Community Center (916 West Benning Rd, Galesville, MD 20765) on January 17th at 6:15pm and call me if you have any questions. We need your support to show that we all want to preserve our South County Farmland and believe there is a more appropriate location for this Commercial Utility-Scale Solar Power Generation Plant.
Let me know if you need more information and thanks for your support!
Brad Harris
bharris@ambriggs.com
202-277-5488
Dredge Pond Constructed in 2017
Without Community Involvement
Pictured below starting from the left shows development: Power Lines, Sudley Landfill, Southern Recycling Center, 2 cell towers (not visible but in frame of picture), proposed 60 acre solar power plant location in the center, and to the far right 20 acre dredge pond (2017).
Larger picture of the dredge pond developed on agricultural land in 2017 to dump material from Rockhold Creek to make channel deeper. This was also an unannounced development that very much impact community with construction and dump truck traffic.
How the Proposed Solar Site Looks Now
Street View
(Click Image to Go to Google Maps)
A “Blueprint” of Proposed Development
Note: Each of the boxes represents a solar panel. In total there will be approximately 94,000 panels. The red line represents the 50 – 75 foot grass “buffer” around the proposed solar panel development.
~ Click image for larger, more detailed view. ~
Link to Newspaper Article of 04 Dec 2017
Dec 4, 2017 – Anne Arundel County has issued an eight-month moratorium on the approval of solar parks after concerns were raised by farming and environmental advocates about the impact of those parks on rural areas.
The announcement comes after a Nov. 30 vote in favor of an eight-month moratorium by the Anne Arundel County Agriculture, Agritourism and Farming Commission. The advocacy group Growth Action Network also called for a moratorium. (Read Full Article)
Invitation to Jan 17 Meeting
Great information Brad.
This project should never have gotten this far. The county knew that proposals like this were in the pipeline and failed to create reasonable guidelines for siting. Now we all have to mobilize against a clean energy project.
This is the result of county leadership that has crippled the planning department and put developers in the driver’s seat.
See you on the 17th.
Thank you Mr Pittman for your insight and support.
I have passed your message along to Brad.
You people are crazy! Presently, we selfishly generate the majority of our energy through the seemingly limitless use of fossil fuels, which threatens our world and all future generations. Now, for the first time, we have clean, local, job generating, alternatives, and you folks want to restrict their use. This sort of “NIMBY” inspired behavior imperils real solutions that might move us towards a clean, energy independent future.
Richard Zantzinger
Cumberstone Road
Greetings Richard,
Thanks for your conscientious and spirited comments. I fully support your sentiment, enthusiasm, and sense of urgency in embracing clean, renewable energy like solar and wind. That is clearly the direction in which we need to go.
That said, there were a number of questions and concerns regarding the tactics and strategies that this particular company was using in gaining access to this particular plot of land. They themselves acknowledged that their initial plan was wrong and they scaled it back 70%.
For me, the matter is not that I am against solar – far from it. But just because some outside company, that is mostly looking to profit from Maryland resources, uses the term “solar”, it does not mean that they can proceed in any way they wish, including bypassing standard norms and protocol with regards to public hearings and land use.
Personally, I would like to see the development of solar energy be done by in-state (ideally local) companies that work more cooperatively the local people. As opposed to having a company from Colorado come in and profit from Maryland resources and take those profits back to their area etc.
Again, I appreciate your overall perspective and am glad to know you are in the neighborhood.
Satyam