Clearing of the former Bassett Country Club property has brought attention to a solar farm that will be located across from Stanleytown Elementary School and was approved in 2020.
Many residents living nearby said they are unhappy about the farm, and some said they were never notified about the project.
Donna Jarrett, who lives at the backside of Hillcrest Park, has felt the effects of the farm’s construction. “They burned (debris) Sunday, and it was so bad that you couldn’t even go outside,” Jarrett said. The entire Bassett Forks area is being affected by the plume of smoke. “The smoke is terrible.”
She doesn’t know whether the project may devalue her property, but Jarrett said that she felt that it wasn’t worth it to try and contact anyone about the project.
“We figured once it was set to go, we didn’t stand a chance,” she said, adding that residents weren’t properly notified about the project. “Nobody knew anything about it until they started clearing the lot.”
Jarrett and others also are concerned about noise from inverters.
“This was something we weren’t aware of was even an issue when these projects started being proposed to Henry County,” she said.
Lee Clark, the county’s director of planning, zoning, and inspections, said “Henry County does not have anything invested in this or these projects.” Because the solar project is privately funded, local tax money will not go toward the project.
The property is owned by the Lester Group Inc., and the energy produced on the site will not contribute to the county or the city, according to county officials.
Clark said that the level of noise is linked to the type of inverter that’s used on site. He is aware that a solar farm in Axton is currently responding to many noise complaints due to the inverters installed there.
“That has created a noise issue or noise complaint from the humming or the noise that they make,” he said. “I’m not aware of what type of inverters are proposed to be used on this project.”
Clark said that in 2020, adjoining property owners were notified about the solar farm plan and an upcoming meeting. The county advertised the public hearing on the project in the local newspaper.
“At the time, we had very little feedback from the residents. We did have some that inquired in our office and came in to view the plans for the facility,” Clark said, adding that little feedback was heard at the public hearing.
As for the disposal of the debris, Clark said landowners are allowed to burn organic materials, despite the smoke.
“That is something that is allowed unless there is a burn ban or something else in place,” he said, and currently, it is considered safe to burn organic materials on the property.
In terms of property values, Clark said “if a project like this is done well, and it doesn’t adversely affect the adjoining properties, that means that there is not any noise that affects the other properties. It doesn’t visually impact the other properties in a negative way, then typically, solar projects don’t have a significant impact on property values.”
The environmental impact of the farm is also under control.
“Henry County is responsible for enforcing the regulation for erosion and sediment control for that property,” Clark said. The Department of Environmental Quality also handles and reviews stormwater regulations to help control runoff.
“They make sure that any sediment that is created by that site stays on the site, from a stormwater standpoint, those measures are also put in place, but they are more long term for the entire life of the project, not just during construction,” said Clark.
The county has ordinances that restrict the size and quantity of solar farms.
“One, we implemented a two-and-a-half percent density maximum in a five-mile radius of any solar project,” Clark said. A one percent cap is also implemented for solar farm use.
“There is probably in the neighborhood of six or seven hundred acres left within that one percent cap,” Clark said.
