Committee adopts zoning changes to align county solar rules with state law

Planning staff presented ZTA 2607 as a compliance update to align Montgomery County's land‑use code with recent state changes.

"This CTA will amend the use standards for a solar collection system," Ms. Nadeau said, noting that House Bill 1036 reduced the county's threshold for local zoning preemption from 2 megawatts to 1 megawatt and required the county to adjust definitions and standards.

The draft separates rooftop and ground‑mounted systems, moves existing numeric limits into clearer sections, and creates site‑plan and conditional use requirements for larger ground‑mounted projects (minimum site size proposed at 3 acres, with setbacks, screening, and removal instructions). For rooftop systems, planning proposed fewer local requirements where state law governs generation limits and grid interconnection.

Planning chose to note the preemption in local text rather than remove existing standards entirely, preserving the county's fallback if local conditions meet priority preservation thresholds. OLO's racial equity statement again identified potential distributional effects, and the climate assessment noted moderate positive impacts from increased solar.

Committee members accepted a series of clarifying amendments from planning staff (codifying the public utilities article, clarifying the scope of preemption, refining how on‑site energy is measured, and reorganizing AR‑zone language). One recommended citation change generated strong disagreement from staff but the committee sided with council staff on presentation and formatting. The committee voted to adopt ZTA 2607 as amended (recorded 3‑0).