A fight over the fate of Ada’s farmland: Rural residents challenge solar on farm ground
When solar developers tried to buy up farmland near Kuna last summer, neighbors mobilized against the project. The family trying to sell its land framed the sale as an issue of private property rights, but the neighbors were adamant that this was about preserving farmland and a rural way of life.
“We’re advocating for our community to keep it the way that it is,” said Justine Krivanec, one of the neighbors, told the Idaho Statesman at the time.
Ada County commissioners ultimately denied the part of that project located on Ada county land, but the outcry over the proposal was so substantial that the county decided, amid efforts to update its zoning code, that it needed to take another look at the standards for solar farms.
“Although the existing zoning code allows for this type of development, more specific standards seem appropriate given comments from the public, reviewing agencies, and staff’s increased understanding of how these developments work,” according to the county’s website.
The plan was to wrap those changes into the larger rewrite, Brianna Bustos, a spokesperson for Ada County Development Services, told the Statesman.
As the year wound down, Ada County development officials thought they were nearing the end of that multiyear rewrite. They reached out to residents at the beginning of the process in 2020, and again after staff created a first draft in 2022. They “didn’t get much feedback at all,” Bustos said.
But in recent weeks, officials heard from several county residents that they were caught off-guard by the whole update, she said. Officials decided to offer more open houses and time for the public to weigh in.
“We didn’t want them to feel like we were trying to rush the process,” she said in an email.
So officials decided to delay a public hearing Thursday, Jan. 16, before the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission on the proposed changes to the code. Even so, nearly 20 residents who showed up to speak were allowed to. More than half of them focused on changes that would affect solar projects.
Several were members of Rural Community Advocates, an organization formed in 2024 to oppose the solar development near Kuna.
Farmland advocates worry about solar restrictions
In letters to the county planning team, social media posts and comments on Thursday, members of Rural Community Advocates expressed concern about what they saw as an overly narrow restriction on what kinds of farmland should be protected from solar developments. The proposed code calls for restrictions on “prime” farmland, which the group says could leave large swaths of other viable farmland vulnerable to development.
“While we appreciate the efforts being made towards finding a balance between green energy and concerns over loss of agricultural land, we do feel that the proposed ordinance does not do enough,” Ted and Leslie Vander Schaff wrote in a letter to the development team, shared with the Statesman by Krivanec, the president of Rural Community Advocates. Ted Vander Schaff is a dairy farmer and tenant on part of the Kuna-area land that was up for sale to a solar developer last year.
Solar companies “have deeper pockets than the farmer, and we can’t compete with them over our agricultural land,” he wrote.
Advocates expressed concern, too, about long-term plans to eventually decommission sites that do go up. They worried that the companies could be long gone by the time developments reach the end of their lives, leaving taxpayers holding the bag.
Solar advocates: Developments don’t destroy farmland
Debbie Davis, a member of the group, told commissioners that she — and all the members of her group — understood the need for renewable sources of energy and had nothing against solar projects. But, as the group did last year, its members asked why these projects couldn’t be hosted in more remote areas or on vast tracts of federal land.
Members of Rural Community Advocates said they feared solar developments, even if temporary, could permanently destroy farmland.
“Once such land is converted for industrial use, it is nearly impossible to reclaim it for agricultural purposes,” Krivanec wrote to county development officials.
Peter Richardson, the executive director of Idaho Energy Freedom, an organization that says it aims to counter energy-related misinformation, rebutted those claims. Solar projects are one of the few ways to actually preserve farmland when it’s not in use — especially compared with residential or commercial developments, which the current and proposed zoning ordinances would allow on farmland, Richardson said.
“The irony that gets lost in all the rhetoric is that solar development is the only sure way to preserve farmland for future ag uses,” he said at the meeting. “Solar projects — and only solar projects, by your ordinance — are required to provide for decommissioning at the end of their useful life.”
“The same cannot be said for any other type of development,” he added. “When a big-box store closes, the owner is not required to tear the store down, rip out the foundations and remove acres and acres of parking lots.”
Planning and Zoning commissioners delayed the public hearing until April 24, and the development team plans to hold open houses before then, including one at the Ada County Courthouse on Feb. 18. Residents can find more information about the project, and opportunities for feedback at adacounty.id.gov. Search “zoning ordinance amendment.”
