By Leann Schenke

DOVER — Cedar Creek Solar’s second application for a solar complex near Smyrna received approval from the Kent County Regional Planning Commission on Thursday.

The vote was five in favor and two against. The commission members who voted against the application did so for reasons like the complex being located on farmland, near wetlands and in hunting areas.

“My answer is no,” vice chairman Paul Davis said. “I hate to vote that because I really support solar. It’s the way that the energy crisis is being addressed, but in my viewpoint, I don’t think this is the right location. If it had been someplace else, after hearing the facts, I would have probably voted for it.”

The application, which also has the blessing of county staff, must now go before Levy Court commissioners for final approval. That entity meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The public may attend in person, at 555 S. Bay Road, or online. More information is available here.

Cedar Creek Solar’s previous application received conditional approval from the planning commission in September but was subsequently denied by Levy Court.

The company then submitted a modified application to RPC, while also appealing Levy Court’s decision to deny the initial application. However, attorney Wendie C. Stabler of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr said the applicant would prefer to see the second application approved.

“It’s a better plan than the one (RPC) endorsed back in September,” she said during a Dec. 2 public hearing on the application. “We have listened. We have made modifications. We are not discouraged. We are prepared to move forward with an even less impactful plan with less waivers and more protections for our neighbors than we have before.”

The new plan would still install the same number of solar panels, 230,000 across 260.46 acres of a nearly 530-acre area. There also is a larger buffer of trees around the complex, in an effort to make the panels less visible.

Commission member Denise Kaercher made the motion for conditional approval of Cedar Creek Solar’s application Thursday.

Within Ms. Kaercher’s motion, the applicant did receive the request to install panels near ditches already in place on the property. Her motion also asked Cedar Creek Solar to ensure the parcel be returned to its current state after the solar panels have reached the end of their life span — about 25 to 30 years.

In his vote against the application, Mr. Davis said solar complexes should not be installed on farmland.

He noted that he is not against solar but that the county needs to develop a consistent policy with firm standards for approving or denying applications of this sort.

“In my opinion, it’s an open door,” he said.

Levy Court’s Department of Planning Services is in the process of developing guidelines for accepting solar complex applications.

Explaining her vote in favor, Ms. Kaercher said she had the environmental benefits of solar in mind.

“We are destroying our planet right now, we being human beings,” she said. “Solar power has been shown to be part of the fix. It’s a change that we just have to — one of many, many changes — that we’re going to have to accept.”