The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council is moving forward with a proposal that would allow large-scale solar farms in rural areas, rejecting a recommendation from the city’s planning commission to prohibit such installments entirely.
The city banned such projects after a 2024 request from developer Silicon Ranch to amend Fayette County’s zoning ordinance. The change would have paved the way for a 797-acre solar farm in east Fayette County, and it kickstarted a discussion on where solar farms could be built countywide.
Earlier this year, the council’s solar work group asked the commission to review a revised proposal to allow solar on 1% of Fayette County land, with added restrictions. It would require property owners to maintain some level of agricultural production, create a land conservation plan and set requirements for vegetative cover.
Last month, the planning commission voted unanimously to uphold last year’s ban.
During a work session Tuesday, council member Liz Sheehan introduced an amendment to the commission’s recommendation re-adding language to allow for some construction.
The 1% would include an industrial solar project at the former Haley Pike landfill. The land was leased from the city to Edelen Renewables for a 357-acre solar farm earlier this year.
Supporters said allowing solar will help Fayette County meet its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and mitigate the effects of climate change. But preservationists and horse farmers argued industrial solar will degrade Lexington’s prime soils and streams, and questioned how the installments would be decommissioned.
Aaron Mikel, who works with the nonprofit Fayette Alliance, described the debate as pitting environmentalists against environmentalists, advocating for more solar on rooftops and brownfields instead.
“To think we can easily restore an industrial use site back into a diverse and complex ecosystem seems unrealistic,” he said, “and logistically, are we confident that there will be someone willing to even farm a repurposed industrial site? I think we know how challenging it's been redeveloping our urban core, and today we're being asked to accept that redeveloping our farmland is just that easy.”
The amendment passed 8 votes to 7. Vice Mayor Dan Wu and council members Tyler Morton, Shayla Lynch, Emma Curtis, Liz Sheehan, Joseph Hale, Amy Beasley and Dave Sevigny voted in favor. Council members James Brown, Chuck Ellinger, Tom Eblen, Lisa Higgins-Hord, Whitney Elliott Baxter, Jennifer Reynolds and Hil Boone voted against.
“I think we should absolutely put solar on parking lots and brownfields and rooftops and every piece of land that we can. But if we're serious about confronting the climate crisis and if we're serious about addressing the net-zero goal that the council made unanimously several years ago, I think we need to think a little bit bigger,” Sevigny said.
Boone, who represents a large portion of rural Fayette County, also introduced an amendment that defined the footprint of solar farms to also include fencing, visual buffers and transmission infrastructure. The amendment passed 8-7.
He introduced other amendments that would further limit solar construction, but those were voted down. That included specifying solar farms could only be built in 1% of Fayette County’s rural service area, instead of the county as a whole. Another would have equipment set back at least 1,500 feet from other properties.
The council voted to place the zoning amendment on the docket for first reading Aug. 27. It will pass after two readings.
