City Commission approves amendments regulating solar energy production on first reading
The city of Sarasota’s zoning code and comprehensive plan are embracing solar energy with updates aimed at regulating the construction of solar facilities.
The Sarasota City Commission unanimously approved changes in the zoning code and the comprehensive plan that add solar utilities as future land use classification in certain zoning districts on first reading at its meeting Monday. The move aims to regulate and encourage the development of solar energy production facilities within the industrial general and industrial heavy zoning districts.
The additions respond to a 2022 Florida State Senate bill that mandated local municipalities to regulate floating solar facilities, which consist of solar cells atop bodies of water like stormwater treatment ponds, in their future land use classifications. The city submitted its guidelines to the state last November.
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Solar power is the fastest-growing energy source worldwide, and last year, renewable energy accounted for 30% of electricity generated for the first time. Florida’s solar energy generation grew 28% from 2022 to 2023, per a Climate Central report, and it produced the third-most solar energy of the states behind Texas and California last year.
Solar facilities can occupy anywhere from less than 10 acres to thousands of acres, depending on the energy needed to serve the area. David Smith, the city’s manager of long-range planning, noted that sufficient space for solar facilities within the assigned zoning districts is sparse but that staff is open to exploring parcels in the county as potential construction spots
Though it’s unlikely Sarasota will host hundred-acre solar facilities, Smith said a general uptick in the use of solar power means the city will begin to see more facilities constructed with the new zoning and comprehensive plan amendments.
“The power supply will be more clean energy if you have solar utilities,” Smith said. “Things are moving toward solar power.”
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Almost half of the parcels in the industrial zoning districts are located within three miles of the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. To avoid harmful glint and glare toward the airport and other nearby neighbors, the new guidelines state that photovoltaic panels must be angled to avoid excess reflection toward properties or streets.
The commission posed little resistance to the amendments, agreeing that they represented a significant step toward clean energy. Commissioner Erik Arroyo said the new language keeps Sarasota ahead of other cities in energy innovations, job creation and the other benefits of solar power.
“We’re trendsetters,” Arroyo said. We’re moving ahead of what other elected officials and municipalities are doing throughout the state.”
The commission will issue its final vote on the amendments on a second reading at a special meeting July 15.
Contact Herald-Tribune Growth and Development Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Amendments regulating solar energy production pass on first reading
