A project that has been in the works for nearly a year got approval from the Rockmart City Council to move forward on Tuesday evening.
The project is being organized by a new company Rockmart Solar, which is being funded by Samsung and will be built on farmland owned by Tommy Sanders.
Council members voted unanimously to approve the project with the recommendation from the city’s planning commission that they also include a landscape buffer between the panels and the roadway to ensure they aren’t an eyesore.
The 12-acre project will have a footprint in section of his farmland previously used for cattle grazing. Sanders said that as he gets older and unable to keep up with the farm and his other business, Pizza Farm, the project made sense for utilizing his land in a profitable way.
Construction won’t begin immediately, since Sanders said Rockmart Solar will have to still do some research on the best placement of the panels in the middle of a 20-acre portion of his property being rented by the company.
John Campbell, representing Rockmart Solar during the session, told council members that their plans will be to keep the panels in the middle of the 20 acres they’ll be utilizing for the project and have no plans to remove any trees unless absolutely necessary. That would likely be due to shadows cast during certain times of the day that would decrease the efficiency of the panels generating electricity from the sun.
During a public hearing prior to the vote at the Rockmart City Council meeting on Tuesday evening, neighbors on Marquette Road who own property around Sanders did have their concerns. They were worried about the panels being too close to their house – they have to be 175 feet away from the neighboring property lines, according to the city – and about the noise being made during construction required to sink posts into the ground for the panels to sit on, and the potential for the panels to cause problems with their homes in the future.
One of the neighbors simply asked why Sanders didn’t give Rockmart Solar the option of utilizing a portion of his property that sits directly across from Rockmart High School on Highway 113 and Marquette Road.
However, Sanders has already planned to relocate Pizza Farm to that part of the property in the coming months. He announced that plan in a previous episode of Talking Points on Polk.Today.
Campbell responded to the concerns of neighbors by reporting to the council that they plan to provide at least a two-week notice prior to their plans for construction, that the design of this solar farm will require fewer posts than previous projects like one just up the road on Marquette that is already in place, and looks to keep well away from homes surrounding Sanders property as much as possible.
He added that it was the company’s intention to “be good neighbors” to those who will live around the site.
The 175-foot setback from a property line doesn’t include the distance from a property line to an adjacent home, which would increase the distance from the future panels to the front doors.
The upcoming project will continue to increase the already dozens of acres of solar panels that are currently operating in Polk County. Along with the existing panels on Marquette Road just past the Georgia Northwestern Technical College campus in Rockmart, two sets of panels are setup on Highway 101 north of Aragon, at the Northside Industrial Park in Cedartown, behind GEO Specialty Chemicals plant, and another set adjacent to the former Probation Detention Center on city-owned property off of Sixth Street near the intersection with West Girard Avenue.
