There’s more to

the North Carolina solar town story:


they have already approved other solar farms, one of which is almost built,
and they approved the one in question once it was moved to a different location.
And there are real reasons they are concerned about solar farms;
reasons which solar developers can address (unlike pipeline companies).

Snopes reviewed the original story and found it mostly true.
The town of Woodland posted
its own update 14 December 2015,
which clarifies what they were up to, concluding:

At the December 3, 2015, Town Board Meeting, after listening to all
of the concerned parties, the town board voted to maintain the RA
zone for the fourth proposed solar farm site. The town council’s
decision to deny the rezoning of this fourth proposed solar farm
site was due, in part, to a circulated petition by a group of
concerned town citizens opposing the change of zoning for this
fourth site. The citizens opposed the site location, because to
grant the zoning request would create a situation in which the town
would be completely surrounded by solar farms.

It should be noted that the solar companies have been gracious and
were willing to accommodate and address any and all concerns from
the town board and citizens of Woodland and for that, the town board
is greatly appreciative.

The Town of Woodland welcomes new industry and business to locate
here in Woodland, North Carolina. The town board and the citizens of
Woodland are supportive of new technologies and industry growth. The
approval of three solar farm sites located within the zoning
district of Woodland is clear evidence of this fact. The Town of
Woodland will continue to explore opportunities to develop
partnerships with industries, businesses and the citizens of
Woodland, in an effort to foster further economic, commercial and
residential development.

Yet there’s more.
As I mentioned previously, there are real issues in many small towns like Woodland of young people moving out because of few economic opportunities.
David Roberts, Vox, 18 December 2015,

The North Carolina town that’s scared of solar panels, revisited,

The land that Woodland is being asked to rezone is currently zoned
residential and agricultural. Rezoning it to allow solar panels
amounts to admitting that it’s currently going to waste. People
aren’t going to be living or farming there. The town is not going to
grow — not now, not any time soon.

“How would you and your family like to live in the middle of a solar
farm, surrounded on all four sides?” said [Woodland town council
member Ron] Lane, a retired elementary school principal. “We have
approved three solar farms on almost three points of the compass.
This would have completely boxed the town in with solar farms.”

The land around the town, once its future, is being industrialized
by a company from Somewhere Else, for the profits and benefits of
people Somewhere Else, as Woodland continues to struggle. It’s not
hard to understand the angst, or why, despite pleas from the solar
company (Strata), the Woodland town council not only blocked the
farm, but voted through a moratorium on future farms.

Well, that moratorium part seems like maybe it idn’t really happen, given the town’s update (see above).

The Vox article suggests a solution:

Many voices in the industry urge renewable energy industries to do better, more proactive PR, and there’s something to that. But PR can only do so much. One clear result from both studies and experience is that local communities are more amenable to renewable energy when they have some financial stake in it, some sense of ownership and benefit. (John Farrell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance is great on this stuff.)

(NREL)

For projects where there is some sort of “benefit sharing,” where the community has some stake in the success of the project, NIMBY complaints all but disappear. This is one reason why renewable energy has spread so fast, and enjoys such enormous public support, in Germany: fully half the country’s renewable energy is owned by individuals and co-ops, not big companies or utilities. (In Denmark, 75 percent of wind power is owned by citizen cooperatives.)

And that’s completely doable.
Unlike fracked methane pipeline boondoggles, which scalp many acres of countryside using eminent domain, solar farms can sell shares to local people, or be developed by local cooperatives, and they can’t be built without local zoning approval.

Go Woodland!
Go local solar!

-jsq