Greetings!
I just wanted to update everyone on recent events around historic St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Raccoon Ford.
We have apparently won the first battle against the Industrial Scale Solar threat to our historic area (see news article below) However, no one here believes for a second that "big solar" won't be back to try again.
Our local community is closely watching the activities of the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission like a hawk.
"Reverend" Ron
Cricket Solar pulls permit application for Culpeper Project - Culpeper Star-Exponent (Aug 26, 2019)
Less than three weeks after submitting revised plans for a solar power plant on some 1,600 acres in southern Culpeper County, Cricket Solar LLC has withdrawn the application altogether.
Word came late Monday from McGuire Wood's attorney Ann Neil Cosby of the California company's intent to pull the conditional use permit application it filed Dec. 21, 2018.
"On behalf of Cricket Solar LLC, I am writing to formally withdraw Cricket's Conditional Use Permit application," she wrote in a letter to Culpeper County Planning Commission Director Sam McLearen.
"Cricket has been working diligently over the last few months redesigning the project boundaries to protect wetlands, improve efficiencies, and respond to community concerns related to the project."
The local group, Citizens for Responsible Solar, has increasingly called for the project to be delayed to address neighbors' concerns about natural and historic resources in the area. The proposed site is along Algonquin Trail, near the Rapidan River (RACCOON FORD, VIRGINIA) and Civil War battlefields.
In Monday's letter, Cosby said efforts to respond to community concerns remain ongoing.
"However, at this time, the company believes a withdrawal of the project is necessary in order to ensure that any project proposed represents Cricket's best effort to address community concerns," she stated.
The count Planning Commission hearing on the case, which had been scheduled for Sept. 11, has been canceled, McLearen said.
In a phone call Monday, Cosby referred further questions about the project's future to officials with parent companies, BayWa and Genex Solar company officials did not immediately return a request for comment about the project.