LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton has vetoed an ordinance that would have allowed large-scale solar projects on agricultural land in Fayette County, saying she supports solar energy but wants to protect farmland.
The Urban County Council approved the ordinance 8-7. Gorton vetoed the measure Friday, saying industrial-scale solar projects should be located in areas other than agricultural land.
The ordinance would have allowed utility-scale solar projects in agricultural zones covering up to about 1% of Fayette County.
Jim Coleman, a Fayette County farmer and landowner, supports Gorton's veto. He said the county has other potential locations for solar development, including rooftops, parking lots, landfills and former industrial sites.
“We've got over 10,000 acres here in Fayette County on rooftops and uncovered parking lots that we can use,” Coleman said. “So why do we need to move to our farms when we've got rooftops and all of these different uncovered parking lots and we've got landfills and all of these different brown fields that we can use?”
Silicon Ranch, the utility-scale solar developer behind the proposed project, said the council's ordinance was the result of two years of negotiations and compromise.
“The Council's vote reflected a genuine, hard-won compromise,” the company said in a statement, adding that the measure would allow the community's agricultural heritage, energy infrastructure, productive agriculture and economic growth to coexist.
Silicon Ranch said the project would generate enough electricity to serve more than 10,000 Central Kentucky homes, create more than 400 jobs and generate millions of dollars in investment and local tax revenue.
The company also said the land would remain in agricultural production through regenerative grazing.
Gorton's veto does not necessarily end the debate over large-scale solar development on Fayette County farmland. The Urban County Council can override the veto with nine votes. The ordinance originally passed with eight votes.
