Surry County supervisors voted 3-1 on Oct. 3 to overturn the Planning Commission’s determination that a proposed solar farm conflicts with the county’s comprehensive plan.

Arlington-based AES Clean Energy, the parent company of Sycamore Cross Solar LLC, has proposed the 2,200-acre Sycamore Cross solar farm to span the Isle of Wight-Surry county line with roughly 125 acres located on Surry’s side.

The commission, in a unanimous June 26 vote, found the project to be “not substantially in accord” with a 2023-adopted energy policy amendment to the plan despite its location on six parcels the supervisors approved in 2021 to serve the adjacent 1,750-acre Cavalier solar farm, which also spans the Isle of Wight-Surry line and was developed by AES.

The commissioners took issue with a provision of the energy amendment that specifies solar farms must be within one mile of existing high-voltage electric transmission lines. Though AES proposes to use existing high-voltage transmission lines located within the footprint of Cavalier, the commissioners asserted that because the majority of the project is located in Isle of Wight, most of the panels would be more than a mile away from the transmission lines in Surry.

The commissioners further found “insufficient information” on “noise reduction, financial benefits and decommissioning.”

The supervisors’ vote overturns both of those determinations.

The county’s process for evaluating solar projects requires that the Planning Commission vote on the required “substantial accord determination” prior to vetting a project’s conditional use permit application. If the commission finds a project not in substantial accord, a developer must appeal to the supervisors before the project can move forward with seeking its conditional use permit.

“This discussion this evening is not about final approval of the project or even a determination of conditions at this time that would be applied to a potential permit,” AES Senior Development Manager Greg Creswell told supervisors. “This discussion is simply to determine whether the proposed project meets substantially, but not wholly, with the intent of the comprehensive plan.”

Creswell argued that since “the Cavalier project was found to be an appropriate use on these parcels then it stands to reason that another solar project proposed in the same general or approximate location with the same extent and in all likelihood improved character should also be deemed substantially in accord with the comprehensive plan.”

Dendron District Supervisor Amy Drewry cast the sole dissenting vote. Carsley District Supervisor Breyon Pierce and Bacon’s Castle District Supervisor Walter Hardy each voted with Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Elliott in favor of overturning the Planning Commission. Surry District Supervisor Timothy Calhoun abstained because of his employment with Dominion Energy.

With the vote to overturn now on record, AES is free to return to the Planning Commission to present its full request for a conditional use permit. Once the Planning Commission holds a public hearing and issues its recommendation on the permit, the matter will return to the supervisors for another hearing and a final vote.

Isle of Wight County supervisors already granted final approval on Sept. 19 of Isle of Wight’s portion of the project.

According to Creswell, no land will be taken out of crop production to develop Surry’s portion. The 125 acres are timberland, not farmland, that was already included due to its 2021 industrial zoning for Cavalier in the comprehensive plan’s future land use map as land for existing and approved solar .

“We’re not adding to that 10% cap,” Creswell said, referring to a section of the 2023 energy policy that set a 10%, or 15,278-acre, cap on the cumulative developable acreage devoted to energy projects.