Orange County NC Website
15 <br /> <br />III. Harmony of Use/Compatability <br /> <br />I have visited over 170 solar farms and sites on which solar farms are proposed in North Carolina to <br />determine what uses are compatible with a solar farm. The data I have collected and provide in this report <br />strongly supports the compatibility of solar farms with adjoining agricultural and residential uses. While I <br />have focused on adjoining uses, I note that there are many examples of solar farms being located within a <br />quarter mile of residential developments, including such notable developments as Governor’s Club in <br />Chapel Hill, which has a solar farm within a quarter mile as you can see on the following aerial map. <br />Governor’s Club is a gated golf community with homes selling for $300,000 to over $2 million. <br /> <br />The subdivisions included in the matched pair analysis also show an acceptance of residential uses <br />adjoining solar farms as a harmonious use. <br />Beyond these anecdotal references, I have quantified the adjoining uses for a number of solar farm <br />comparables to derive a breakdown of the adjoining uses for each solar farm. The chart below shows the <br />breakdown of adjoining or abutting uses by total acreage. While most of these solar farms were located in <br />North Carolina, the breakdown of adjoining uses is very similar to that shown for Oregon as shown earlier <br />in this report. <br /> 136