What do solar farms have in common with fracking, strip clubs, halfway houses and landfills?
On the surface, it might be hard to see. Solar farms and fracking couldn’t be more different, with one promoting green energy and the other built on fossil fuels. Adult entertainment might be questionable, but halfway houses are about encouraging recovery from drug addiction or criminal behavior. Landfills are unpleasant but necessary.
So where do they all intersect? They are all things people have protested. If they must be allowed, fine, but put them somewhere else.
On Tuesday, Derry residents turned out for a township meeting, many opposing a proposed 60-acre solar panel array that would convert sunlight to energy to feed into the electrical grid.
Solar farm protests might be seen as political — a kind of anti-environmental backlash to similar protests against fracking that have happened in recent years as Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale has been plumbed for natural gas over the past 20 years.
But opposition to the Derry project was not just campaign bullet points. Some voiced concerns over issues like pollution of soil and water and what could happen to the land in the future. Other issues were more personal, like noise from construction vehicles, potentially lower property values and ruined views.
Whether the concerns are altruistic or not, the stumbling block for protests about placing a controversial project in a given area often comes down to the fact that protest can be the only weapon in the citizens’ arsenal. A strong zoning plan might not prevent a particular use, but it can box it into a specific area.
However, not every area wants zoning. The American Planning Association says only about 57% of municipalities in Pennsylvania have zoning. That’s the same percentage of areas in Southwestern Pennsylvania, far less than the 99% of the Philadelphia area and the 81% of the adjacent southern part of the state.
In many places, zoning proposals and other laws can make locals bristle at potential restrictions. Ask the Kiski area, where people turned out in force to object to proposed limits on owning alligators after multiple reptiles were found in area waters.
That leaves municipalities and residents open to projects they don’t want and have no way to stop. And there’s the irony.
People resist zoning because they want freedom from rules and faith in their neighbors, not restrictions from government. But when an unwanted project moves in, that faith quickly turns to “Not in My Backyard.” And without zoning, there is little recourse.
Solar farms, strip clubs, landfills — the absence of planning doesn’t mean these won’t come into an area. It only means the community won’t decide where they go. The developer will, and by then, it’s too late.
To have a role in shaping these choices, the time to engage is before a controversial project is proposed, not after.
