When ZTA 20-01 passed in winter 2020, the provision balanced large scale solar generation with viable farms. Among the changes - farms can now install solar arrays generating up to 200% of their use (up from 120%) as well as larger arrays to provide community solar.  Office of Agriculture has compiled the specific stipulations for solar on farms. But you may  have specific questions as to whether new opportunities for solar generation make sense for your farm, but may not know where to start- we are here to help.

MCA is teaming up with the Montgomery County Green Bank and County's Office of Agriculture to help you navigate decisions on solar installation. This is our second in a series of three webinars covering solar installation for different types of residences. Be sure to pick the webinar that best applies to you:

• Our first webinar back in May covered solar installations on single family residences and businesses. 
• This session covers solar generation as an accessory use on farms. 
• The third webinar, date TBD, will cover the provisions for large scale community solar. 

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Farms looking for an in-depth look at community solar information, stay tuned for a future webinar focused exclusively on this topic. 

The following is a communication from Sugarloaf Alliance  sharing some great news about the Frederick County master plan. For a number of months it looked like the planning commission may allow a development carve out in the plan for a single developer who was allegedly in talks with Amazon for a large data center where 500 acres of farmland now stands west of 270. The FredCo planning commission it its vote today has held the boundary for protection where it logically belongs - all the way to the western edge of 270, removing this carve out from the draft.  In doing so they have also upheld a commitment to transparency and public process. Three cheers to our northern neighbors for protecting their singular landscape and environmental resources! (much more background in MCA's action alert on this here) There is more to do here to ensure these changes make it into the final draft but this is surely a moment to celebrate.

The Planning Commission voted this morning to change the northern boundary drawn in the draft Sugarloaf Plan from Route 80 to I-270 and the Monocacy River, and they renamed the plan the Monocacy Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan. The Planning Commission confirmed that the boundary of the plan now runs along 270 from the Montgomery County line to the Monocacy River.  Changing the boundary allows for additional protection of land in the area of the Monocacy Battlefield National Park. They "held the line." Thanks so much for all your time, passion and eloquent comments to the Planning Commission! You did it!

Next Steps:  
-Sugarloaf Alliance will continue to pursue changes in the Monocacy Sugarloaf Plan text to correspond to the revised draft boundary. 


- The Sugarloaf Alliance will continue to engage with the Planning Commission regarding the details of the draft Plan overlay zone. 
-The Planning Commission is scheduling additional workshops on the Monocacy Sugarloaf Plan before approving it in its entirety and forwarding it to the State of Maryland Department of Planning for mandatory 60-day review. We will keep you informed about that schedule.
-Following the State’s review and comments, the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Plan, either in person or virtually.
-The Planning Commission will review the public hearing testimony, take action on the Plan, and forward it to the County Council for their discussion, public hearing and action. 
What You Can Do Now:
-Write or email the Frederick County Planning Commission to support text changes to the Plan (as above), the overlay zone and your other concerns and suggestions.   [email protected]  or mail to 30 North Market Street, Frederick MD 21701
-Watch Planning Commission meetings on FCG TV (link on the Sugarloaf-Area-Plan site as above) and call in to share your views and appreciation of their vote on the boundary: 1-855-925-2801, code 8768. Click on this link for meeting agendas and other information: https://frederickcountymd.gov/7992/Planning-Commission
-Review the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan and previous public comments online at https://frederickcountymd.gov/8046/Sugarloaf-Area-Plan under “Meetings and Outreach.
-Reach out to your neighbors and to related organizations to make sure that interested citizens understand the importance of upcoming decisions on the Monocacy Sugarloaf Plan to the future protection and sustainability of the Monocacy Sugarloaf area.

Thrive 2050 is the update to the master plan that will govern how our county meets our challenges going forward. Though it is a comprehensive plan - the chapter on environmental protection and climate resilience was removed from the draft plan and relegated to a non binding appendix (much more on that here). These crucial chapters need to be re-instated in the main plan for this document to properly guide protection of critical resources going forward - notably our water supply. In fact a lot of the goals and action items were stripped from this final plan after the first round of public comment (with word counts as a metric, this plan now sets 85% fewer goals, offers half the protection and is 60% less focused on equity)

With Thrive 2050 not yet being ready for approval in the eyes of many in the County, incoming Council President Albornoz has proposed a series of listening sessions hosted by the county advisory boards representing the geographic areas of the County. While this is a welcome development, finding out how to participate in these sessions has been challenging. We have gathered below the zoom links and for each session (The Silver Spring and East County sessions already occurred). Click these links at the appointed time to join:

• Jan. 5 at 7 p.m., East County Advisory Board Committee meeting; 
• Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Silver Spring Advisory Board Committee meeting;
• Jan. 20 at 7 p.m., Mid-County Advisory Board Committee meeting
• Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., UpCounty Advisory Board Committee meeting;​  
• Jan. 27 at 7 p.m., Western Montgomery County (Bethesda/Chevy Chase) Advisory Board Committee meeting
  
  

Questions for Community Members 
The goal of these sessions has been for residents to weigh in on the following questions. If you are unable to attend a zoom session, you can use our form to send the council your answers to these questions: 
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1. Is this vision consistent with your views of how the County should develop and grow over the next three decades? 
2. In your opinion, what are the three most important issues facing the County as it relates to land use (such as availability of affordable housing, accessible, convenient and reliable transportation, access to parks and open space within your community, preservation of historic and environmental resources, and proximity to jobs, retail, entertainment, arts and culture). 
3. Does Thrive address these issues in its vision, policies or practices? If not, what would you add or change? 
4. In order to maintain and improve the County’s quality of life, what issues should the County focus on in the next 20-30 years- if these are different from the issues discussed earlier? 
5. Do the policies and practices in Thrive provide sufficient guidance to address these issues? If not, what would you add or change?  

With so much going on, it can be hard to find time to engage with community issues, Thrive 2050 will underlay the decision making for the County going forward and as currently written leaves a lot of important items out.  This plan is poised for approval soon as needs your voice. Please take a moment to answer the listening questions here.