Rossanley solar project moving forward - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

Medford, Ore. — Dozens turned out for the second reading of an ordinance which would allow about 40-thousand solar panels on private farmland off Rossanley Drive. What residents didn’t know though, was the second reading was primarily for typographical errors in the ordinance, not whether or not the commissioners should have approved it. That was a done deal last month.

Still, commissioners heard all the citizens out Wednesday, and commissioner Colleen Roberts changed her vote.

“The precedence that [allowing the solar farm] opens and it does concern me,” Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts says, “and the fact the citizens obviously had not all heard about this in a timely fashion- it was according to law- but citizen input is goal one.”

Commissioner Roberts was the only one opposed, so the ordinance is approved.

It could be appealed through the Land Use Board of Appeals, but at this point it’s moving forward. The one caveat is that the solar panels can only be in place for 30 years and will then be reverted back to farmland.