Press Alert — Concerned Citizens of Woodridge, ccowdc@gmail.com, (202) 643-1363
SOLAR GOOD, CONSENT BAD; DC ZONING COMMISSION WEAKENS COMMUNITY INPUT AT THE BEQUEST OF THE MAYOR
On Monday night, July 29, 2016, in service to the Mayor’s request to speed up permits, the DC Zoning Commission voted to eliminate special exception requirements for solar projects with 1.5 acres or less of ‘aggregate panel face area’ to be built in sensitive residential communities. https://app.dcoz.dc.gov/Content/Search/ViewCaseReport.aspx?case_id=19-04
The Zoning Commission rule changes would eliminate the opportunities for communities to engage in constructive dialogue on new solar facilities that may be placed next door to people’s homes.
This means ANC’s, civics and citizen groups, and even homeowners will have absolutely no ability to weigh in on these new solar facilities projects at all, whether as to distance (40 feet from existing homes), buffering, or any discussion of electrical equipment box locations, anything.
“By making these large solar facilities ‘matter-of-right’, the Zoning Commission has stolen the opportunity from those affected by these projects to provide input in any way,” said longtime Ward 5 resident, Debbie Holmes.
In a most recent and controversial case, Catholic Energies wants to construct a very large new solar facility consisting of over 5,000 panels up to two stories in height on approximately five acres of land. The solar arrays will be constructed to replace open rolling hills with trees behind a series of homes – many owned by long-time Washingtonians and seniors in the Woodridge community of Ward 5. https://wjla.com/news/local/dc-neighborhood-not-happy-new-solar-farm
“In preparation for the solar facility, Catholic Energies cut down and removed dozens of trees including the significantly larger ‘Special Trees’,” said Joyce Chandler of the newly formed Concerned Citizens of Woodridge in Ward 5. “Then, without notifying adjacent homeowners, earlier in June, Catholic Energies sprayed the non-selective herbicide Aquaneat, which contains the active ingredient from Bayer’s Roundup, across five acres of land ‘to kill turf’.”
Concerned Citizens of Woodridge is a new Ward 5 non-profit citizens association that is now weighing their options regarding the recent zoning changes that eliminate community involvement in solar projects.