By Miles Layton

PLYMOUTH — The Washington County Board of Commissioners on Monday approved a special use permit for a 150-megawatt utility-scale solar facility, authorized a proposal to restructure the county’s Emergency Management and EMS departments into a single integrated unit, and adopted an updated county strategic plan during Monday’s meeting, April 6.  Another story about the Washington County Commission meeting will appear in the next edition of the Roanoke Beacon — be sure to check it out.

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Solar Facility Clears Commissioners

Sandbar Solar One LLC received approval for a special-use permit to construct a large solar energy facility on seven parcels of private land totaling approximately 1,882 acres, located between the towns of Roper and Creswell, fronting on U.S. Highway 64 and Scuppernong Drive.

The project, developed by AES Clean Energy, a renewables subsidiary of Fortune 500 global energy company AES, will generate approximately 150 megawatts of photovoltaic solar power and interconnect with Dominion Energy of North Carolina. Developer Charlie McClure told commissioners the project would deliver a significant increase in county property tax revenues with little to no county infrastructure costs.

A Raleigh attorney — I couldn’t make out her name, it sounded like Meredith or something from Parker Poe Adams and Bernstein and Attorneys — presented on behalf of the applicant and walked the board through the nine findings of fact required under the county’s zoning ordinance for granting a special use permit. McClure followed with testimony addressing each finding in turn, describing the project as a low-impact development that produces no emissions, generates no significant noise, and does not increase traffic volume once operational.

McClure said the project meets or exceeds all setback requirements under the county’s Solar Energy Development Ordinance, including a minimum 75-foot setback from all property boundaries, 300-foot setbacks from residential properties, and an enhanced 200-foot setback from U.S. Highway 64 for the panels themselves. Inverters will be set back 250 feet from adjacent properties, exceeding the ordinance’s 100-foot requirement.

“The surrounding parcels are agricultural fields and silvicultural tracts, and the project will not impact those uses,” McClure said.

Commission Chairman John Spruill raised the issue of gate access, noting that responders had previously been unable to enter a locked solar facility during an emergency. McClure said access codes would be provided to police, fire and emergency services, and Sandefur suggested a Knox box as a potential solution.

On decommissioning, McClure noted that the county has set a bonding requirement of $10,000 per acre — a higher standard than the state requires. He said the applicant would pursue the county’s decommissioning path, though state law requirements, including submission of a decommissioning plan and registration with the Department of Environmental Quality, would still apply prior to construction or operation.

Professional engineer Chris Sandefur, with 15 years of experience in solar development and prior service as an optimization engineer at what is now Duke Energy, offered expert testimony on health and safety. He told the board that solar panels contain no chemicals that could leach into the ground and said North Carolina’s 15-year history with utility-scale solar had produced no documented negative environmental effects.

“There is nothing in these panels that can dissolve or come out of the panel and go into the ground, even if they’re damaged,” Sandefur said.

When asked whether the project would benefit local electricity customers, given that the facility will interconnect with Dominion Energy, McClure answered that an off-taker agreement has not yet been finalized, but that Dominion is the primary target.

“If we were to enter into an agreement with Dominion of North Carolina, then users within that service territory would be the ones benefiting from this energy development,” he said. “I just can’t tell you it’s done because it’s not done.”

That Raleigh attorney also asked the board to grant a five-year vested rights period rather than the standard two years, noting that the project must have all local and state permits in hand by December 2026 to meet an interconnection deadline with the utility, even though an off-take agreement is not yet secured.

“The applicant doesn’t have control over the timing of that cycle,” she said, referring to Dominion’s request-for-proposals process.

The Washington County Planning Board had voted unanimously to recommend approval at its March 19 meeting. Planner’s staff had no objections, describing the application as complete, thorough and consistent with the Washington County Land Use Plan. The board voted to approve the special use permit, including the five-year vested rights period.

EMS, Emergency Management to Merge

County Manager Curtis Potter presented a proposal to restructure Washington County’s Emergency Management Department and EMS from two standalone departments into a single partially integrated unit, and the board authorized the transition.

Potter described the current arrangement — in which Emergency Management operates as a standalone, non-integrated department — as one end of a spectrum. Full integration, he said, is more typical of larger urban environments. What he is proposing for Washington County falls in between.

“The bottom line is that this would authorize restructuring Emergency Management and EMS as two separate departments to slide EMS underneath of Emergency Management so that they were essentially one integrated department,” Potter said.

He outlined several expected benefits, including alignment with Incident Command System best practices, the potential for shared administrative personnel, shared equipment, and shared budgetary resources. The new M-TAC facility, scheduled for completion in a couple of months, is designed with primary office space intended for the Emergency Manager and additional space available for EMS — an opportunity Potter called unlike any the county has had before.

Potter was careful to distinguish between administrative and operational oversight in the proposed model. Under the restructuring, the Emergency Manager would have administrative oversight over EMS but would not manage day-to-day EMS operations — a distinction he said was essential to making the model work.

“The emergency manager would be somebody in this integrated model who understands and has done EMS, but would not be responsible for managing EMS on a day-to-day basis,” Potter said. “They would work with the EMS director who does that.”

He noted that the restructuring is not irreversible. “It’s something that can be undone in the future if we decide that it’s not the right model for us,” he said.

Potter outlined a phased implementation schedule. The first phase, covering the initial 30 days following board approval, would involve developing and adopting updated job descriptions and establishing a written delegation of authority. He said the restructuring is expected to yield a better long-term product for citizens of both Washington and Tyrrell counties, which the county’s EMS serves.

Strategic Plan Adopted

Commissioners also adopted an updated Washington County Strategic Plan for 2026, the county’s second strategic plan since the original was adopted in April 2024. Potter presented the plan, which retains the county’s four primary strategic objectives — sustainable economic growth and development, strong educational opportunities, safe and healthy communities, and organizational excellence — and expands the total number of specific action items from 47 to 49.

Two items were added since the draft was presented at the previous meeting. The first reinstates a goal from the 2024 plan to support Washington County’s local hospital, which is pursuing renovations to its operating rooms and emergency room using secured federal funding and is working with the county’s economic development department to identify additional grant sources. The second is a new goal directing the county to work with law enforcement and community partners to reduce incidents of community violence.

“That was added based on a number of recent events in different news stories and just the identified need that that’s something the county should try to facilitate as best they can,” Potter said.

The plan is available on the county’s website at www.washconc.org under the news section. The board voted to adopt it.

Trillium Reports on Mental Health Services

Dave Peterson, Senior Regional Vice President at Trillium Health Resources, delivered the organization’s annual update, reporting that Trillium served 441 Washington County residents in the most recent fiscal year across its mental health, intellectual and developmental disability, and substance use programs. The total has declined in recent years because Trillium now serves only the most severely affected individuals following a 2021 state decision to shift low-to-moderate risk populations to private insurers. Statewide, Trillium served 92,368 individuals and spent $1.7 billion on services last fiscal year across its 46-county area.

Peterson flagged an upcoming competitive challenge: Trillium must rebid its state contract roughly every four years and will face competition from large multi-state insurance companies in the next cycle, expected around 2028 or 2029.

“Our point is to make sure that we remain a public system and that we remain a local system,” he said.

The meeting also served as a send-off for Peterson, who Commissioner Johnson confirmed is retiring. Johnson, a long-tenured member of Trillium’s Regional Advisory Board, praised his decades of service.

“Of all the people that have come through, from mental health all the way to children, I have found no one that has been more helpful, had a bigger heart for the individuals, and been a greater leader than you have been,” Johnson said.

Flood Ordinance Variance Approved

Commissioners sitting as the Board of Adjustment approved a variance from the county’s flood ordinance for a renovation of the former Plymouth fire department building at 130 East Water Street. The applicant, contractor Chris Morris of A.R. Chesson and Construction on behalf of the Town of Plymouth, sought relief from a two-foot freeboard requirement above base flood elevation. Building Inspector’s staff said FEMA permits commercial buildings to stop at base flood level in such cases, and that no consequences to the county’s flood insurance program would result. The variance was approved on the condition that any required federal notification be completed and documented.

Other Business

The meeting opened with the presentation of a Governor’s Volunteer Service Award to Ann Keys, signed by Governor Josh Stein. Public forum speakers included Joseph Barber of Roper, who asked commissioners to consider raising his mowing rate to $1.50 per acre, and Mosey Ingold of the Center for Energy Education, who encouraged residents to sign up for a state energy efficiency program offering up to $16,000 for HVAC systems, water heaters, and insulation, and up to $14,000 for appliances, funded through a $208 million federal grant. A request from Cool Springs Athletics was also on the agenda.