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July 24, 2024
Editor, The News-Gazette: I want to alert readers to the importance of attending the upcoming Aug. 14 meeting of the Rockbridge County Planning Commission as they consider whether to recommend approval of the Warm Run solar application. This 50-acre proposed project is directly behind Spencer’s Hardware on U.S. 11. If you love the Fairfield industrial solar array, you will love the Warm Run project.
Many residents don’t want these solar projects and are tired of running to meeting after meeting to implore planning commissioners and county supervisors not to approve them.
At the July 22 Board of Supervisor meeting, supervisors approved updates to the Comprehensive Plan. That should be great news – it has wonderful language about the importance of preserving agricultural land and wildlife habitats. But the supervisors also stated that the planning document is philosophical and that they are not bound by it.
Whether we like it or not the burden is on Rockbridge County residents to turn up and fight to protect Rockbridge. The Supervisors seem committed to the idea that only the property owner and solar applicant have all the rights. Adjacent landowners and other county residents have none in their view. There are several recent Virginia court cases that have reasoned differently.
The most immediate and expedient way to ensure reasonable land uses and protect Rockbridge is to turn up for the Aug. 14 Planning Commission meeting and make your voice heard. Twenty words in opposition can help prevent twenty years of a polluting eyesore. MICHELE JOHNSON Rockbridge Taxpayer Alliance
