A 2,200-acre solar farm that has been sought by Entergy Louisiana and its large industrial customers for more than two years in St. James Parish failed to win local land use approval Tuesday.
After more than a two and a half hours of public comment and the reading of letters from residents, solar developers, Entergy and regional economic development groups, the Parish Council voted down the St. James Solar proposal, 4-3.
The vote came after the council rejected a resolution, 4-3, to approve the farm with several conditions.
The developer, D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, had cut its original plans by 40% following a solar farm moratorium in 2022 and a new ordinance to regulate their siting in the parish.
The solar farm would also have had large land buffers, fencing and bamboo screening that DESRI officials contended would make the large farm's panel virtually invisible and noiseless to the passer-by. The company also recently agreed to set aside 100 acres of remaining land for residential development.
Several local residents, land owning families, business people and residents with community groups argued for the 360-megawatt solar farm for its tax benefits and additional dollars promised in a $4.67 million community benefits agreement and for the step they say it represented in a cleaner, more sustainable future that would also support the parish existing industry.
The council secretary and Council Chairman, Ryan Louque, spent nearly an hour and a half reading letters and emails from residents, economic development groups, Entergy officials and others. Most were in favor of the project and several residents wrote of DESRI's efforts to speak to residents in their neighborhoods about the solar farm.
But the council also heard from several residents who objected over the proposal's use of valuable sugar cane land, the aesthetics of acres of reflective panels, its impact on future residential growth and uncertainty that they say remained in DESRI's long-term commitments.
They also argued that solar project deviates from the parish land use plan and the council should follow the recommendation of its Planning Commission. In late April, the commission voted, 8-1, against the solar farm.
Some opponents, like Vacherie resident Myra Simon, objected to using the common term for the facility, a "solar farm," arguing they weren't agricultural uses that the name implies but industrial operations that belonged in industrial or commercial uses.
The project needed a special exception from the area's agricultural and residential land use designations, which don't allow solar farms, and a handful of variances where land buffers did not meet the minimum requirements of the ordinance.
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