Greene County Commissioners address solar moratorium and community concerns
On Monday, March 3, 2025, the Greene County Board of Commissioners convened at the Greene County Operations Center, led by Chairman Bennie Heath. The meeting focused on a public hearing regarding a proposed moratorium on solar farm permit applications, and included regular business and commissioner reports, as well as addressing public concerns about land use and a natural gas expansion project.
Public Hearing: Moratorium on Solar Farm Permits
Chairman Bennie Heath initiated the public hearing, stating, “At this time, I will open the floor for public hearing under consideration of a moratorium on special use permit applications for solar facilities. The floor is now open for the public hearing. Do I have anyone from the public who wishes to make comments at this time?”
Mary Lou Jones began by asking, “I’d like to know if any of you commissioners have researched this situation at all, done any research on it?” Heath confirmed, “I would say yes, that we have..” After further discussion, Mrs. Jones confirmed, “Yes, that’s all I needed to know,” satisfying her inquiry.
Christie Rouse expressed urgent concerns, stating, “My name is Christie Rouse, and you’re going to be putting this—the energy, where they put the energy, whatever they call them, batteries—it will be connected to my land, biggest pine land, and I’ve heard from the different fire departments. and also from these other people that they will not put it out. What am I going to do? Y’all going to burn up my pine trees that I planted 20 years ago so that I cannot reap the benefits from it? You’re going to burn them up because the fire department’s not going to put it out.”
County Attorney Gay Stanley clarified the purpose of the hearing, explaining, “Madam, this hearing—the commissioners are considering placing a moratorium, stopping any more solar farms being built. It’s not anything that’s already been built in Greene County. That was built under the ordinance that was in place and the state regulations that are in place. It won’t be retroactive. But what it will do — if the commissioners decide this is the appropriate action, it will cease future applications for solar farms for approximately two years, while the commissioners are able to review the ordinance and update it—add anything that needs to be added to it or take anything away from it that needs to be taken away from it—and it will let them have time also to hear from any expert witnesses or people they may want to consult to make sure it’s a good ordinance.”
Rouse continued, “They’ve already agreed to do this, and where there is a mill run that runs through the farm has been cut down to the mill run, so you can’t even see it. So my concern is the fire if it catches on fire, plus the man is ruining my mill run.” Heath then asked Snow Hill Fire Chief, Todd Whaley for an update.
Whaley replied, “Currently, they’re providing training for us. If your property catches fire, we would extinguish that. But the battery in the solar farm section, you know, again, we’re still learning that the protocol is to allow it to burn, but we’re under more training now.”
Rouse further alleged, “This man has already done this to my land. He’s already come on my land and done this. He’s cut down woodland on my land.” When asked if this was trespassing, she affirmed, “He is trespassing. He has been back there and where there was a pond that had two—they come to meet together—they meet on my land, not his land, but he has cut everything around it down. And now I know that’s against the law because you’re not supposed to cut anything within 15 feet, at least 15 feet.”
Sheriff Matt Sasser stood to address Mrs. Rouse. “If someone is cutting timber that belongs to you, you should probably come by and see me and do a report so that we can properly investigate.”
Rouse also raised concerns about decommissioning, saying, “Upon reading about the decommissioning of these things, we do not have anything in place about it. They say they would decommission it. But decommissioning does not mean they’re going to go in there and take these things back up and take out all these wires they planted under the ground.”
Stanley responded, “I do not know what the state requires, but I do know decommissioning is regulated by the State of North Carolina, and in every county, solar farms are part of a group that have to post a bond with the state.”
Rouse countered, “This company also has had farms in Virginia that have been decommissioned and are just left there sitting.” Stanley reiterated, “The State of North Carolina is who governs that, and therefore this Board of Commissioners cannot overrule the state law. They will look at, I’m sure, if the moratorium is put in place and they address our ordinance, they will look carefully at what the state law does and does not cover, and what else Greene County may need.”
Bobbi Jo Mewborn raised concerns about public awareness, stating, “My name is Bobbi Jo Mewborn. I don’t have land adjacent to the solar farm coming in, but I’ve got a question for future solar farms. Is there any way, when they put in an application to do this, that the public will know about it, besides up to the date they come in here to tell us what they’re doing? Like, they’ve already been in here three years. They turned in the paperwork, they’ve done everything they needed to do, but the public did not know it till December.”
County Manager Kyle DeHaven responded, “I think this thing we’re putting in place will help us eliminate some of that.”
Stanley elaborated, “There’s a process that’s gone through, I believe, in planning and zoning, where permits are asked for and received, and they are allowed to go through if they follow the state law and the county ordinance, which is a reflection of the state law for the most part, and this company did. So that’s the situation that we’re in. This public hearing is for a moratorium on solar farm permit applications.” Stanley explained, “That means that there will, for a two-year period, not be allowed to receive special use permit applications for solar farms. So for two years, the county is going to investigate if there’s anything that can be or should be added to the ordinance or removed from it to best fit the needs for Greene County and its citizens.”
Mewborn challenged, “In that two-year period, whoever does this to accept it, they can accept it, and the public don’t know nothing about it. They put in the application maybe to the planning people, but the public did not know it until December. Nobody knew about this except for the farmers and whoever they turned the application into. Is this going to happen every time something like this happens?”
Stanley corrected, “No, ma’am, it would be a cease. If I’m hearing you correctly, the moratorium, if it goes into place, would be no applications can be accepted for two years while the commissioners revise the ordinance and look at it. You are saying you would like the moratorium, and you would like a new ordinance that includes notification to the public, right?” Mewborn nodded.
Heath spoke up, “We agree that there needs to be an informational piece added based on your comments, and we’ve all recognized that, and that’s a note I’ve already made for the updating of an ordinance.”
Mewborn grew insistent, “This thing got slid in years before anybody knew. So what’s going to happen next time?”
Heath replied, “That’s kind of the point of the moratorium. But I’m also hearing that what happened three years ago sounds like a landowner and a private company saying, ‘I privately might want to lease your land,’ and that will be beyond the commissioners’ ability to say they need warning anytime land is leased in Greene County.”
Mewborn countered, “I don’t want to be slapped in the face with this again.”
Heath concluded, “The people in Greene County that knew were private citizens entering into a private agreement. The letter they sent out was invitation to go eat, right? Please understand, that was from the company, not from the county.” DeHaven affirmed, “We take your suggestion about the communication process very much seriously, and that will be a part of our concern.”
Dr. Francis Sugg added, “There’s nothing that can be done about this current situation. Is that correct? When you are working on this, remember what we were taught as children—do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I don’t think there’s anybody in here that would want to live by this stuff, and that’s what it sounds like to me.”
Additional Business
Fabian Gomez of Desi Incorporated presented Piedmont Natural Gas’s project, stating, “Currently, Piedmont Natural Gas is working on extending their gas distribution line so they could take gas to the new high school being built out. That’s the first phase. The second phase is to extend the gas line to the prison, and along the way, they’ll also be providing gas to all the residents who’ll be able to tap into the gas line.” He explained the company sought temporary construction easements on five county-owned tracts, offering $250 per tract due to deeds extending to the centerline of DOT right-of-ways. The board approved the request with a unanimous vote.
Commissioner Reports and Recommendations
Chairman Bennie Heath addressed a recent social media post by Commissioner Derek Burress, stating, “I want to address the recent posting on social media by Commissioner Derek Burress on the morning of February the 18th. Commissioner Burress posted information about the previous night’s commissioners’ meeting. He stated he did not vote against the newly appointed attorney but opposed the process. He referenced a general statute that states it’s the responsibility of the County Board of Commissioners to appoint the county attorney.
This is absolutely correct, and that’s absolutely what we did.” Heath detailed a January 15 meeting where the board, including Burress, unanimously tasked a search committee—comprising Stanley, County Manager Kyle DeHaven, and economic developer Trey Cash—with recommending a replacement for resigning attorney Gay Stanley. “Commissioner Burress was one of the five that approved that process and voted affirmatively to move forward with that process. It appears he’s changed his horses in the middle of the stream to make accusations against fellow board members and the process he himself also approved on January the 15th. Nothing was done inappropriately.”
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