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My town's vote on a new solar farm got me thinking about land use
Last month, our small town council in Millerton had a big vote on a plan to build a 50-acre solar farm on the old Johnson field. Some folks, like my neighbor, said it was a no-brainer for clean energy and would power about 300 homes. They pointed out the field was just sitting there, growing weeds. But other people, like the local farming family, were really upset. They argued that good farmland should stay farmland, especially with food prices going up. They said we were trading food security for power we could get elsewhere. The meeting got pretty heated. Now the vote passed, but I keep going back and forth on it. Was using that specific field the right call, or should we have looked harder for a worse piece of land? How do other places balance this?
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robin7771mo ago
We had a similar debate here. The compromise was putting solar on capped landfills or over parking lots. It keeps good soil for food and uses dead space. Maybe your town can try that next time.
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jones.grace1mo ago
capped landfills" like that's a normal thing to have around?
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