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News

11 acre solar project on prime soil takes another step toward approval -Hearing May 19th

3/25/2025

 
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(Chaberton energy is sending postcards offering 10 times what leasing farmers pay for land in the Ag Reserve and have proposed two projects on prime soils in conflict with the county master plan. The state Public Service Commission (PSC) has authority to allow these projects to go through. Show up to help make the case for local farms and the Ag Reserve.)
The Chaberton Ramire Project will have the third public hearing - this time on zoom. May 19th at 7pm 
Instructions for signing up to testify (virtually) or submit public comment are here. If you'd like to testify, please get in touch to coordinate with us - [email protected]. 
​ (Their website is clunky, if you hit a snag, let us help -  [email protected])

Our Executive Director Caroline  Taylor and farmer ally Doug Lechlider plus our Pro Bono counsel Bishop Sheehan all testified at an evidentiary hearing full video here. 
Update 4.30.25 Montgomery County's Planning Board has approved the mandatory referral by a vote of 4-1 - in opposition to the Planning Staff recommendation for denial. To remind-this is an 11 acre 3MW array on entirely prime class 2 soils - the best soils in the Ag Reserve. This array is not in alignment with the County master plan.
With the recent passage of "The Renewable Energy Certainty Act" which takes oversight completely out of the hands of local municipalities, more of these arrays on prime soils will be proposed - and built on up to 5000 acres of the Reserve.
​Though at the local level, the Planning Board is not upholding the master plan, MCA has become an "intervenor" at the state Public Service Commission that will decide this case. Staff, our pro bono attorneys and farmer partners spent time in Baltimore this week testifying against this proposal that would take prime soils out of production. Please stay tuned. 
Bethesda Beat Coverage 
​Please plan to join MCA, and our partners at a public hearing on the second of  two large solar proposals seeking to end run MoCo's master plan by siting on prime soils - this is the second public hearing, the first was the Sugarloaf Array in Dickerson, this one is on the Ramire Project on Whites Ferry Road in Poolesville  - organized by the Public Service Commission. The updated plans can be viewed here
Here is why MCA and our partners oppose these arrays - they are attempting to override the careful policies crafted to balance solar with farming in the Ag Reserve:
MoCo Master Plan
Chaberton Sugarloaf
Chaberton Ramire
Under 2 MW
4 MW
3 MW
Only on Class Soils 3 and above - protect prime soils
77% on prime class 2 soils
99% on Prime class 2 soils
Protection for Streams, Forests, slopes
None
None
Local, transparent conditional use process 
Qazi-judicial process in Baltimore where residents have no standing
Qazi-judicial process in Baltimore where residents have no standing
Please join us either on zoom or in person for this hearing:

April 14, 2025 6:30 PM

Upper Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Department

19801 Beallsville Road, Beallsville, MD (in person) or on Zoom 



Here's How You Can Help:


  • Show up! - And Bring a Friend 

  • Choose to speak at the hearing (coordinate with us to be sure all topics are covered - [email protected]) 

  • Can't make it? - Write in using the PSC portal (open until April  17) here and please reference Case No. 9733 (hit a snag -> [email protected])

Much more info in our recent newsletter on the previous hearing here.

More: We are working to bring balance to a bill at the General Assembly that will open virtually all forests and farms to the siting of industrial scale solar - can you take a moment to personalize a letter to your representatives. 
​

Solar on sub-prime soils moves forward in Barnesville

3/21/2025

 
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A project for 1.8 MW of solar at 17700 Barnesville Road is moving toward a conditional use hearing.  More info from the solar developer about the project here. 
The project was called the Barnesville Solar project but is now called Mountain Vale Community Solar in response to resident feedback. 

ZTA 20-01 opened the Ag Reserve to community solar arrays of under 2 MW on sub prime soils (class 3 and above) that leave forests intact and avoid steep slopes. The ZTA established a conditional use process - the same as other industrial uses in the Reserve must go through. 

MCA will be watching the development of this array but so far this project looks to meet the stipulations of County policy. A larger map showing where signs will be posted to alert neighbors is here. Note that the triangle of forested area to the right to the map belongs to the same landowner will not hold any arrays or other infrastructure. 

While this project looks to be on the right side of county policies - two other developments are threating to tip the balance between solar and agriculture in the Reserve and across the state more broadly: 

1. Solar developer Chaberton Energy is attempting to sidestep local provisions that balance solar and faming in the Reserve and taking a proposal for solar on prime soils to the state. These arrays are larger than those currently allowed and are mostly on prime class 2 soils - taking the best soils out of production for a least a generation. 

2. General Assembly bill HB1036 and SB931 would allow solar arrays on all ag soils, mature forests and stream buffers - completely upending decades of conservation efforts at the local level and overriding master plans across the state.  Learn more and take action here. 

Know your water webinar 3/19

3/17/2025

 
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Curious about what's in your water?

Have you ever looked at your water quality report and wondered what it really means? Or do you rely on a well and want to know how to keep your drinking water safe?

Join us for a webinar where we will share some valuable insights and answer your questions. Water Quality Specialist with UMD University of Maryland Extension, Andy Lazur, will help us break it all down.

Here is the Recording of this webinar (slides from UMD Extension's Andy Lazur here  slides from the Good Gift Campaign in MoCo Here): 
Much more information can be found at our Good Gift Project site 
This webinar and the Good Gift Project are funded through the following grants and supporters like you - we'd be honored by your tax deductible support as we expand this pilot project.
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ABOUT US
What We Do
A Brief History
Board & AC
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ABOUT Ag RESERVE
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Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​[email protected]
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MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008