Opposition to a proposed 5,000-acre solar farm in Jackson County, Kansas led to recent calls for a moratorium on solar farms in the county located north of Topeka, Kansas.
The County Planning Commission held a recent meeting to consider urging the county commission to adopt an 18-month moratorium on the Jeffrey Solar project proposed by NextEra Energy Resources. The project was revealed some years ago and sparked opposition from residents and farmers who fear the loss of at least 2,000 acres of farmland west of Holton. The size of the proposed solar farm would cover about 6,600 football fields of land.
The Planning Commission considered changes to the county zoning laws and this week the issue will be considered by Jackson County Commissioners. It was not the first such meeting to deal with the solar farm. The Planning Commission held a similar lengthy meeting in October 2025, one lasting three hours.
The commission listened to dozens of residents who spoke about proposed solar regulations that filled 34 pages. The Holton Recorder reported the regulations were prompted by the proposed Jeffrey Solar project.
Sherman Bernett, lead developer for the Jeffrey Solar project, said the current draft of solar regulations will stop the project, according to the Recorder.
“This latest draft of regulations will not allow this project to move forward,” Bernett said. “The setbacks proposed are not based on science and engineering and take away landowner rights.”
NextEra contends the solar farm would bring employment opportunities to the area and generate $136 million in revenue. The website for the solar project stated, “The Jeffrey Solar project is an innovative solar project proposed for Jackson County, Kansas that will have a capacity of up to 500 megawatts of clean, renewable, American-made energy. The Jeffrey Solar project is more than solar panels — it represents a significant capital investment in Kansas. Once operational, it will create good-paying jobs and millions in additional revenue for landowners and the local community.”
If approved, the project would add solar capacity to Kansas where, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, it totals 463 MW. Jeffrey Solar was scheduled to begin operations by February 2030 and cover nearly eight square miles of land.
The possible moratorium isn’t the first time the county has considered such a halt in solar farm development. It also explored a similar moratorium in 2022. Further, NextEra’s project led to at least one lawsuit in which landowners filed suit to stop the company’s plans for another 5,000-acre solar farm. A U.S. District Judge in Kansas City later ruled against Thomas Hoffman, Joseph Strong, Vincent Shibler and David Shibler. Hoffman contended the project site would affect his local runway and his flying business.
In nearby Shawnee County, where Topeka is the capitol, county leaders recently approved new solar energy project regulations. Shawnee County Commissioner Aaron Mays told KSNT TV News, “Shawnee County right now doesn’t have a, prior to today at least, did not have any solar regulations at all,” Mays said. “And so we initially started talking about this a couple of years ago and decided that we needed to have some sort of a framework in place.”
The new rules apply to solar energy projects in unincorporated areas of the county. They not only created guidelines to review large-scale solar developments but also controls for project size limits, setbacks from homes and roads and requirements for land restoration at the end of the project.