This online petition has been created as part of the final push of our grassroots initiative to reach out to anyone concerned about the increase in solar array farm projects being proposed throughout the Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County areas.

If you are not aware, recently Turning Point Energy (TPE) has filed an appeal for a special exemption to construct a 20 acre, 2MW-AC solar facility on property right off of Rt 219 near The Hot Tub Store, Gosnell Construction, and Buddy's Towing.  This location is also immediately adjacent to the Paradise Ridge HOA, Laurel Brook HOA, and many other private residences.  This specific location will require dozens of acres of forestation to be destroyed and the property is split by a protected wetland and stream so we share environmental and wildlife concerns.

At the end of 2021, a previous grassroots effort helped to successfully prevented the large commercial array extension off of Sand Flat RD adjacent to the Circle R Ranch.  The County Commissioners eventually updated the Garrett County zoning regulation to outright ban large-scale commercial-sized solar farms in the DCL watershed.  However, they are still allowing special exception requests for smaller farms (i.e., up to 20 acres) which are often just as intrusive to the natural beauty of the Deep Creek Lake watershed and surrounding areas.

With Garrett County comprised of 656 square miles of land, there are simply better locations to build solar farms than near Deep Creek Lake and its watershed areas.

By signing this petition, you are supporting the opposition of this Rt 219, Garrett Highway solar farm.