ANNOUNCEMENT – Liberty Township Requests the Board of Licking County Commissioners to Designate Liberty Township a Restricted Area for Large Solar Facilities (> 50MWs) – (posted 09/28/2023)
At our regular meeting held September 11th, 2023, Liberty Township Trustees voted unanimously to send a resolution to the Licking County Commissioners requesting the Licking County Board of County Commissioners create a restricted area prohibiting large solar development (greater than 50 Megawatts, 50MWs) in Liberty Township.
Note: 1MW of solar power generation requires 6 to 8 acres of solar panels. Hence, 50MWs requires 300-400 acres of land. An example, the Harvey Solar Project proposed in North-West Licking County is a 350MW large solar facility that will consume over 2,600 acres of land.
Liberty Township Trustees are seeking this restriction in an effort to protect the rural nature of our township as well as protect our residents’ property values.
The resolution was sent to the Licking County Board of County Commissioners Tuesday morning, September 12th. Trustee Bogantz attended the weekly Commissioners’ meeting Thursday morning, 9/14, and provided public comment encouraging the Board of Commissioners to consider our request with high priority.
At their 9/28/2023 weekly meeting, the Board of Licking County Commissioners passed resolution 120-273, moving Liberty Township’s resolution 2023-09 forward.
The Liberty Township Board of Trustees would like to thank the County Commissioners for their support to move this discussion to the next step in the process.
The Board of Commissioner’s are now following the process outlined in Resolution 120-273 (see link below).
The Commissioners will hold a public hearing on this matter on November 8th, 2023 at 6pm. The meeting will be held at the following address:
The Donald D. Hill County Administration Building
20 South Second Street
Newark, Ohio 43055
*** OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS ***
Liberty Township’s Resolution 2023-09
​Licking County Board of Commissioners’ Resolution 120-273