LOTTIE — Residents from Lottie and other neighboring areas gathered Thursday night for a town hall meeting focused on proposed industrial-scale solar developments and related energy infrastructure projects planned for northern Baldwin County and near the Escambia County line.

Organizers said the meeting centered on two proposed solar sites near Lottie — a 3,431-acre project involving timber company Rayonier and EDF Renewables, and a separate roughly 1,129-acre site tied to NextEra Energy. Residents also discussed concerns about transmission infrastructure, a proposed nearby data center and possible zoning efforts in the unincorporated community.

"I saw the breaking news that there was a 4,500-acre industrial solar site approved for Stockton, Alabama, and my blood boiled," said Meagan Fowler, president of Friends of the Tensaw River. "We started a Facebook group and met with the media that day."

Fowler said opposition to the Stockton project quickly expanded after residents discovered additional proposed developments in Tensaw and Lottie.

"We found out practically in my own backyard in Lottie was another one, 3,431 acres, and then we found out about yet another one in the Lottie area, so it just keeps getting bigger and bigger," Fowler said.

Fowler said she believes developers are targeting rural communities because they are largely unzoned and unincorporated.

"They think these rural communities don't have a way to organize, that we're too few and we're too spread out to have much impact with pushing back on what they're doing," Fowler said. "Well, they're wrong."

She described rural communities as closely connected through churches, volunteer fire departments and multigenerational family ties.

"They've underestimated just how connected these rural lands are," Fowler said. "We're not an easy land grab. We are a community."

Fowler also said existing high-voltage transmission lines running through Tensaw, Lottie and toward Atmore are likely drawing industrial development to the area.

"I've been looking at transmission lines, and we've got a target on our back right now," Fowler said. "We have the big giant juicy transmission line, and that's why they're coming in right now in these rural unincorporated, unzoned areas."

During the presentation, Fowler raised concerns about battery storage facilities, stormwater runoff and environmental impacts on nearby waterways, including Pine Log Creek, Turkey Creek and Patterson Lake.

"To install hundreds of thousands of solar panels, EDF's contractors will need to strip hundreds of continuous acres of vegetation," Fowler said. "During heavy rains, this is going to create a massive erosion factor."

John Murphy, a Stockton resident and board member of Friends of the Tensaw River, said local residents have spent months researching utility-scale solar projects and related industries.

"We have just about worn out Google and AI for our purposes to try to get as much information as we can," Murphy said. "We want to try to present that to you."

Murphy said residents first learned about the Stockton project after developers had already been working on it for nearly two years.

"That is how these people work," Murphy said. "They all have the exact same tactics, to make sure they can get as far as they can before something happens."

Murphy said runoff into local waterways remains one of residents' biggest concerns.

"One of our immediate concerns is going to be rivers, streams and creeks," Murphy said. "Almost every one of them has sediment runoff."

He also questioned whether solar projects could eventually lead to additional industrial development in rural areas.

"Don't think that that's the end game, because I sure don't believe it is," Murphy said.

RESIDENTS DISCUSS ZONING, MORATORIUMS

Residents also discussed zoning and possible moratoriums on industrial development as potential ways to protect rural communities.

Claudia Slaughter Campbell, president of Fort Mims, said communities across northern Baldwin County are facing different concerns depending on their location and proximity to the proposed projects.

"Stockton is Zone 3, Rabun is Zone 2, and Zone 1 includes Lottie, Tensaw and Little River," Campbell said. "We're all meeting individually, because the needs of Tensaw and those river communities are different from the people here in Lottie and Rabun and Stockton."

Campbell said discussions surrounding zoning have been difficult for residents in historically unzoned rural communities.

"This is not easy," Campbell said. "None of us like the idea of having to ask if we can put a building in or do anything different. I'm not sure zoning is the answer, but I don't know what the answer is, and so we have to work together."

Campbell said a countywide moratorium on industrial development could be one possible option.

"If we had a countywide moratorium that would stop any industrial-type things like the solar, the data centers, the carbon sequestration — I don't really want a factory on this side of the river," Campbell said. "I like fish, I like water and I like life like this."

Campbell said residents are continuing to organize and research possible legal and planning options.

"So what is the answer to this?" Campbell said. "I think we're trying to come up with something."

Gabriella Chavez is a Report for America corps member who writes about growth and development in Baldwin County and our natural spaces for Gulf Coast Media. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://tinyurl.com/yaf8yf5n.