Lexington can do better than developing more farmland to reach net-zero | Opinion

Lexington-Fayette County should say yes to solar development in our built environment and yes to putting time and resources towards solutions that can help us reach our goals of carbon neutrality. If our elected officials are serious about reducing local carbon emissions, the first step should be focusing efforts on every suitable roof, brownfield, parking lot, industrial area, and government building in Lexington-Fayette County.

We should dedicate time and resources to talking to community stakeholders like Fayette County Public Schools (who already have a net-zero campus at Locust Trace), the University of Kentucky, Transylvania University, Bluegrass Airport, and others, about how we can identify potential sites for innovative solar projects which directly offset our local energy footprint. Other communities have done it with big results — and so can we.

Instead, efforts by some elected officials have solely focused on how to change our local policies to permit private companies, like Nashville-based Silicon Ranch, whose largest shareholder is Shell Oil, and inevitably others, to build industrial-scale solar energy developments on Fayette County farmland.

Silicon Ranch’s proposed 800-acre facility in Eastern Fayette County is just an example of what could be approved by the Board of Adjustment should these policies pass. Never mind that private solar developments like these, based on their own projections, create few long-term jobs, minimal tax revenue, offer little benefit to Fayette County residents, but take up enormous swaths of what is arguably the most fertile farmland in our community. The “guardrails” proposed along with those policies are grossly inadequate to protect the high quality farmland Fayette County residents rely on — instead jeopardizing thousands of acres with no mechanism for meaningful enforcement.

It’s clear Lexingtonians care about our environment and reducing our carbon footprint. To that end, something important is being left out of the conversation: East Kentucky Power Cooperative, who is not subject to local regulations, is already approved to construct a 400-acre, industrial-scale solar development on a Kentucky Scenic Byway, US-60/Winchester Road, in Eastern Fayette County on prime agricultural land.

In addition, LFUCG is studying the feasibility of putting solar development on the 400 acre Haley Pike Landfill, close by to EKPC’s approved site, and Edelen Renewables has submitted an unsolicited proposal to complete it. This brownfield project, at least, is an example of an innovative project that makes productive use of city-owned land that’s also environmentally compromised.

While public utilities don’t have to comply with our local planning and zoning rules, Lexington-Fayette County can still make a strong policy statement that’s consistent with our community priorities and our 2045 Comprehensive Plan, to support and protect the rest of our unique and productive farmland.

We can and should say no to private developers who want to develop additional, industrial-scale solar energy systems in our Agricultural zones, and who would use our most limited resources with little benefit to Fayette County in return. Similarly, we can say yes to developers who want to work to create innovative solar projects in urban areas, on brownfields, and more.

So, let’s say yes to solar in smart ways. Saying no to more development of industrial-scale solar energy systems in our Agricultural zones is not saying no to solar. It’s saying no to more solar that doesn’t benefit Lexingtonians, and also poses harm to our existing environment, economy, and resources our community relies on for jobs, identity, and the irreplaceable topsoil that anchors it all.

On Tuesday, August 19th at 3pm, the full Urban County Council will consider zoning policies to regulate Solar Energy Systems throughout Fayette County. In July, the General Government and Planning committee of the Council voted to approve a policy which regulates solar energy systems in the urban area and prohibits ground-mounted solar energy systems in Agricultural zones, which was recommended by Planning Staff and unanimously approved by the Planning Commission.

We ask the Urban County Council to uphold those policies and recommendations. We also hope they will consider forming a work group to study other innovative opportunities in our urban areas so we can continue working to reduce our carbon footprint and reach our target goals by 2050, but not throw out all of the other goals of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, like supporting and protecting our farmland, in the process.

Lexington-Fayette County can continue being a model for responsible, sustainable growth that both protects our unique and productive farmland and supports innovative solar development in our urban areas, on rooftops, brownfields, industrial areas, and parking lots. The question isn’t if we support solar energy systems, it’s how.

Brittany M. Roethemeier, J.D. is executive director of the Fayette Alliance.

This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 9:28 AM.