Darlington County Council adopts new Solar Standards
By Stephan Drew, Editor
The Darlington County Council gave final approval Thursday, Oct. 8, to a rewrite of the county’s solar energy standards, capping a night dominated by testimony over the proposed Strike Solar development. Neighbors argued that an industrial facility does not belong in the middle of their community. The project’s landowners countered that the county is changing the rules mid-game.
Ordinance 26-06, which amends Article 19 of the county’s development standards for renewable energy systems, passed on third reading after the council adopted Amendment No. 2, offered by Councilman Albert Davis III.
The amendment exempts any project that already holds a fee-in-lieu-of-tax (FILOT) agreement, as well as projects with legally vested rights. Three projects shown in red on the county’s solar map have no FILOT agreement and must comply. Council members were told Strike Solar is among them.
Landowners: “Switching the Rules in the Mid-Game”
W.J. Gilbert, a landowner in the Palladium Strike Solar Project, said his family has held its land for generations and has spent more than two years developing the project under the existing ordinance. He said the county would gain tax revenue without added strain on services, while neighbors would get a temporary, low-impact use.
“Please consider the impact that this has on my family and the precedent it sets for other landowners across our community,” Gilbert said, asking that projects already in the pipeline proceed under the rules in place when they began.
A second landowner, three years into his own project, said he entered in good faith. While he understood the desire for new setbacks, “switching the rules in the mid-game” is unfair, he said, and new rules should apply to new projects.
Jeff Gainey, who lives next to the proposed site, urged the council to look beyond tax revenue. “Decommissioning a solar site of more than 400 acres,” he said, “will cost a minimum of $6 million to $7 million, at roughly $15,000 an acre in today’s dollars.” A bond, he said, does not erase the risk to the county and to a neighborhood of more than 100 families.
“Will you protect our families, our homes, our neighborhood, or will you protect the profits of an outside developer?” Gainey asked.
Another landowner working with a solar company said his firm has secured a bond covering panel removal, restoration and repair at lease’s end, with premiums paid in advance. He said he will verify each year that the bonding company remains viable. A resident speaking for a road where young families are arriving and a school bus now stops asked for protection of safety and quality of life, noting it is far easier to loosen restrictions later than to tighten them.
Richard Wynn of the Deer Run Drive–Cloud Road community in Hartsville’s Kellytown area supported the amendments, thanking the council for acting quickly. He pressed on FILOT agreements themselves, however, saying the millage-rate freezes are worth millions yet offer ordinary residents unclear benefit: no manufacturing-style jobs, new houses or new citizens.
“Demonstrate to the thousands of homeowners in this county that you represent them also,” Wynn said.
Davis’s amendment struck the original language that grandfathered projects holding a FILOT agreement from before July 1, 2026. It instead exempts projects with legally vested rights under state law (S.C. Code § 6-29-1510) or the county ordinance as of third reading, plus any project issued a FILOT agreement before third reading that complies with it. After a member asked for a plain-language explanation, the effect on Strike Solar was made explicit. The amendment carried, and the ordinance passed as amended.
A resident with 30 years in cybersecurity asked the council to help “deflock” Darlington County, calling the Flock license-plate system indiscriminate mass surveillance. He cited an Oklahoma federal judge’s dismissal of a drug case over warrantless tracking and said he is developing an alternative that meets the sheriff’s needs.
Jabari Clyburn of the Darlington African American Museum, under construction downtown, invited the county to co-invest, calling it the most significant downtown revitalization project of a generation. The museum will be the first non-government building erected downtown in more than 60 years, he said, noting an $800,000 state earmark and nearly $15,000 raised locally in about a month. “State funding lit the match,” Clyburn said, “but our partnership will build a fire that will keep our shared history warm and protected.”
Council passed Ordinance 26-07, a budget amendment adjusting the position list with no effect on the total, and approved Ordinance 26-08, a lease amendment at the county airport. It gave first reading to Ordinance 26-09, authorizing up to $4.5 million in general obligation bonds, and approved EMT and paramedic training equipment and a Humane Society contract.
Brian Gandy of the Historical Commission and Museum won approval to relocate the courthouse historical marker, placing a related marker within about 100 feet of where Amy Spain was executed. Spain, an enslaved teenager convicted of treason by a Confederate military court, is believed to be the last enslaved woman executed in the United States.
An $8 million state-administered grant will fund the Chestnut Street drainage project. A public meeting is set for Nov. 30 at the A.W. Stanley Gym before design begins.