Council to discuss revised solar panel regulations

The site of a proposed solar panel farm development by private company Silicon Ranch.

In Tuesday’s General Government and Planning (GGP) Committee meeting, Councilmembers will discuss proposed revisions to solar panel regulations.

Last September, the Planning Commission approved a zoning ordinance text amendment (ZOTA) creating new regulations for various types of solar panel installations.

• Right now, solar panels in Lexington are largely unregulated. In this newsletter, we’re focusing on the changes being proposed by Council.

• You can read our previous coverage of the original draft regulations here.

Changes to how different sizes of solar installations are regulated

The ZOTA passed by the Planning Commission created three main categories for solar panel installations:

• Integrated systems: Panels built directly into the roof, wall, or another part of a building

• Roof-mounted systems: Panels installed on top of an existing roof

• Ground-mounted systems: Panels installed directly on the ground, further broken down by size:

  • Small-scale: 2,500 square feet or smaller

  • Medium-scale: 2,501 square feet to five acres

  • Large-scale: Over five acres

In this article, we’ll refer to large-scale, ground-mounted installations as solar panel farms.

Council is proposing to revise the thresholds for ground-mounted solar:

• Medium-scale would be redefined as between 2,501 square feet and 10 acres

• Large-scale (solar panel farms) would be anything over 10 acres

A chart showing what types of solar panel installations would be allowed in various zones in Lexington. Source: July 1st, 2025 GGP Committee packet.

Where in rural Fayette County could solar panels be built?

The original ZOTA banned all ground-mounted solar installations on agricultural land. The revised version would allow them in the following ways:

• Small- and medium-scale ground installations would be allowed as an Accessory Use on agricultural land

  • An Accessory Use is something allowed alongside the Primary Use of the land (like farming or housing)

  • These installations could not take up more than 50% of the property’s total acreage. For example, a 10-acre property could host no more than five acres of panels

  • Most properties outside the Urban Service Boundary are over 40 acres, but there are exceptions, especially near the Kentucky River

• Solar panel farms would be allowed as a Conditional Use

  • A Conditional Use requires special permission from the Board of Adjustment

  • If granted, the property could be used solely for solar panels — no agricultural or residential use would be required

Cap on Rural Solar Development

The proposed ZOTA includes a cap on Rural Solar Development: no more than 2% of land in the Rural Service Area can be used for solar panel farms.

• The Rural Service Area is approximately 125,190 acres outside the Urban Service Area.

• Two percent of that equals about 2,504 acres total available for solar farms

This cap would include both private and public utility solar projects — but only private developers would be bound by it.

• Public utilities (like Kentucky Utilities or East Kentucky Power) are not regulated by the city

• They’re governed by the state Public Service Commission and can exceed the cap with state approval

To explain how this cap works in practice, let’s look at two recently proposed solar panel projects.

• East Kentucky Power, a public utility, will be constructing a 387 acre solar panel farm off Winchester Road.

• Silicon Ranch, a private company, has proposed a 797 acre solar panel farm. If this ZOTA is approved, they will need a conditional use permit to build the project.

• If the Silicon Ranch project were to be approved, hypothetically, their project and East Kentucky Power’s project combined would total 1,184 acres.

• That would leave approximately 1,320 acres left for solar panel farms that private developers could build.

Other changes

The revised ZOTA would also allow medium-scale ground-mounted installations as a Conditional Use in the following zones:

• R-3 (Planned Neighborhood Residential)

• R-4 (Medium-Density Residential)

• R-5 (High-Density Residential)

• EAR-3 (Expansion Area Residential)

These zones are found throughout the Urban Service Area. The original ZOTA did not allow medium-scale solar in these zones. If approved, property owners in these zones could apply for a Conditional Use Permit to build up to 10 acres of ground-mounted solar panels.

You can review the proposed ZOTA changes starting on page 13 of this packet.

The General Government and Planning Committee will meet on Tuedsay, July 1st at 1pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in-person or watch live on LexTV.