Community Solar Farm Planned on Oxford Road Goes to County Plan Reviewers Thursday

OXFORD, MARYLAND — A company called Oxford Road MD PV, LLC wants to build and operate a 1.75-megawatt community solar facility on rural-zoned land at 27792 Oxford Road, and its major site plan goes before Talbot County's Technical Advisory Committee on Thursday, Nov. 12.

The committee, made up of staff from Planning and Zoning, Public Works and the county's environmental health office, checks plans against local, state and federal requirements. Its meetings are open to the public, but the public does not take part. Anyone may send written comments to the county's Planning Director within seven days after the meeting for them to be considered, according to the committee's page.

The agenda lists the project as a medium-scale solar photovoltaic facility of 1.75 MWAC, meaning 1.75 megawatts measured as alternating current. It gives the location as 27792 Oxford Road, Oxford, on county tax map 48, parcel 82. Ryan Showalter is listed as the applicant's agent, and the county lists the application as SP-26-10.

A May 20 pre-application meeting agenda listed a 2 MW-AC community solar energy generation system at the same address and parcel. Pre-application meetings are informational and take no public comment, the county says.

The agenda lists the parcel's zoning as RC/WRC. Under the county code, the Western Rural Conservation district covers rural farm and low-density residential land in the western part of the county, and the RC district is applied to land in the Resource Conservation Area of the county's Critical Area, except where the county grants growth allocation.

The agenda does not list the project's cost, acreage or construction timeline.

The review is set for 2 p.m. Nov. 12 in Conference Room 1 at 215 Bay St. in Easton. Earlier that afternoon, the committee takes up a minor subdivision on Marengo Road at 1 p.m. and a major subdivision at 28183 Harleigh Lane in Oxford at 1:30 p.m.