The Shelby County Board of Commissioners approved some changes Monday, April 22, to where large “utility-scale” solar farms could go in the future.

In three separate votes, the commission approved a set of amendments by Commissioner Amber Mills that would:

• Set a 600-foot setback for such large solar arrays from residential areas
• Limit solar arrays to a 1-square-mile site
• Require a 1-mile distance from other utility-scale solar farms

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The changes came on the second of three readings and with some opposition from commissioners concerned about how the changes would work countywide including in the city of Memphis.

Only the increase in the square mileage of the sites was without any no votes.

The ordinance developed by the Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning and Development is a joint city-county ordinance.

The original unamended ordinance with a shorter setback and shorter distance and size requirements is up for the second of three votes Tuesday at the Memphis City Council.

Mills called for a review of county standards for solar projects because of plans for a large solar farm by Graceland WP in northern Shelby County. Since then, the commission voted down that project.

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Commissioner David Bradford said the ordinance shouldn’t have been built with northern Shelby County in mind.

“I think it puts the whole county under too much restriction,” he said.

Commissioner Michael Whaley agreed.

“This is something that needs to be applicable,” he said. “It’s got to align with whatever the City Council does. … We’ve got to look at it holistically and not through past projects.”

But Mills says the open and level farmland in her northern Shelby County district, which is close to high voltage lines, is what solar companies are looking for.

“This is protecting unincorporated Shelby County that’s got the wide-open land,” she said. “It’s just a little buffer between the homeowners and the solar companies that are coming to Shelby County.”

County Commission returns to new rules for selling tax-delinquent land

Meanwhile, the commission held the line Monday on new developments in unincorporated Shelby County that are seeking to be connected to the City of Memphis sanitary sewer system.

The case was a multi-phase Rockgate Center planned development in Eads by MB Gordon Investments LLC.

A city sewer line runs below the 15-acre first phase of the project and the area of Eads was once in the City of Memphis until it was de-annexed in 2020.

The planned development was approved while it was still part of the city and before former Mayor Jim Strickland declared in 2017 that the city would not agree to any new tie-ins to the city’s sewer system in unincorporated Shelby County.

The development’s appeal would have meant septic tanks in the first phase, which was also to be commercial development.

Land Bank debate spills over into other issues on County Commission agenda

Eads residents showed up Monday to oppose the appeal, arguing the land is over a recharge area for the Memphis aquifer and the septic tanks could leak into the groundwater.

Commissioner David Bradford, whose district includes the area, sought a vote Monday instead of a delay the developers wanted until June.

The commission voted down the developer’s appeal on a 0-12 vote.

In other action, the commission:

Delayed again a third and final vote on changes to the County Land Bank that would make it a County Real Estate department.

This time it was delayed to May 15 committee sessions. The measure by Thornton is designed to open up the bidding process for the county’s sale of tax-delinquent property and require development plans for the land from those who buy it.

A member of the ad hoc committee called for the delay to more fully explain to the public what the changes would mean.

New county real estate department vote delayed

Delayed to the May 6 meeting a vote on guidelines for culturally competent community engagement plans for agencies that grant tax-increment financing — or TIF — districts.

The incentives put property tax revenue generated on the property with development back into the economic development projects.

Several commissioners said they have heard concerns and questions from some of the agencies granting TIF status. Brooks, who sponsored the resolution, objected to the delay saying it would not take any power away from those agencies.

“We are not bashing developers. We are not bashing incentives,” she said. “This is a simple resolution designed to provide a rule-based process to give citizens — taxpayers — the opportunity to be informed about public-funded development … in their communities.”

The delay was approved over her objection on a 6-5 vote.

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The commission also approved Monday:

• A $10-million contract with Accenture LLP for implementation of an Oracle Fusion Enterprise Resource Planning – or ERP – system for county government. The item is funded by an information technology services internal service fund.
• A $160,000 contract with Allworld Project Management LLC to negotiate the county’s purchase of rights of way along Hacks Cross Road between Shelby Drive and Stateline Road for Hacks Cross to be widened.
• A $242,774 use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for Ritter Communications to bring broadband access to homes in the Shelby Forest and Northaven areas of unincorporated Shelby County.
• A $50,000 grant to the Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission on what it would take to build, staff and run a crime lab in Shelby County for local law enforcement agencies to use.