Lexington’s Urban County Council voted 8-7 to reopen Fayette County’s agricultural zones to large-scale solar farms—directly overriding a unanimous Planning Commission recommendation to ban them there—setting up a final vote in mid-September that could lock in new rules for the county’s rural land.
The Council’s work-session vote reinstated language that would allow both intermediate and large-scale solar installations in agricultural zones, with conditions—reversing the Planning Commission’s 9-0 vote in July to prohibit them entirely. A first reading of the updated ordinance is scheduled for this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers, 200 E. Main Street, with a second and final reading set for September 10.
What the new rules would allow
If the ordinance passes, both intermediate-scale solar (up to 5 acres) and large-scale solar (over 5 acres) could be proposed in Fayette County’s agricultural zones—designated A-R and A-U—outside the Urban Service Area.
Neither would be approved automatically…