June 27, 2025 – Lexington, KY As the voice of agriculture in Fayette County, representing over 570 members engaged in farming or other agricultural fields, we are issuing this statement in opposition to the proposed zoning ordinance amendment to allow industrial-scale solar development in Fayette County in the Rural Service Area.
Farm Bureau has policy promoting solar energy production and promoting agri-voltaics. Farm Bureau supports and encourages adding solar panels to existing buildings and brownfields. Farmers often use solar energy this way, by adding arrays to our barn tops. We are also intrigued by the potential to place solar arrays over parking lots, protecting the cars beneath from the heat of the day. Solar energy may have a bright future since it apes the method by which farmers have been growing our food since time immemorial. However, we do not believe that it has a place in the Rural Service Area, which has defined Lexington’s global brand identity since 1958.
The benefits of this proposed facility are ultimately ephemeral, while the costs to our Fayette County farmland are permanent. We farm in the Inner Bluegrass region of the state with some of the most fertile and productive soils in the country. The infrastructure needed to support the panel arrays will permanently alter and destroy the productive soils beneath them. Power transmission infrastructure is ubiquitous in the state, and there are many other sites with the requisite substation and no potential to damage important and productive soils.
The Planning Commission and its staff both found industrial-scale solar development to be incompatible with the character of the Rural Service Area as electricity generation at such scale is an industrial use. Lexington recently celebrated the groundbreaking of the Legacy Business Park. Companies building in the park could be incentivized to include ground-based solar in their site plans or on their roofs, or the city could plan solar installations along the Legacy Trail in and around the park. Industrial parks often contain excess land that is not developed for several years after the initial buildout. This land would be better used installing solar arrays to generate extra energy.
The solar arrays of this project will be the last crop that that ground will grow, because this is a de facto expansion of the Urban Service Boundary. It is not in agreement with the Comprehensive Plan or the Rural Land Management Plan.
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Fayette County Farm Bureau is a voluntary organization of farm families and their allies working together to support farmers in practicing sustainable agriculture, to enhance the environment, to provide safe food systems from production through consumption, to communicate factual information to consumers, to encourage youth in advancing education and leadership skills, to represent agricultural concerns to elected officials, and to contribute to the social fabric of the community.
For further inquiries, please contact:
Fayette County Farm Bureau
(859) 253-0023
fayettecofarmbureau@gmail.com