Residents of a Baltimore County neighborhood say they will be surrounded by solar panels if they can’t keep a landowner from setting up a solar farm. A county councilman has come up with a way to kill the project, but the landowner says that would violate his property rights.

Kalindi Hooper, who lives in Kingsville, told the County Council Tuesday night that the proposed solar farm would surround her house like a horseshoe, and other solar facilities are already close by.

Hooper said, “If this goes in I am going to be living in the middle of an industrial solar farm.”

Michael Miklosovich, Hooper’s neighbor, said no one wants to be surrounded by solar facilities.

“We’ve got them on the right, we’ve got them on the left,” Miklosovich said,

Republican Councilman David Marks is proposing legislation that would require a solar facility to be at least 1,000 feet from another solar farm, which would kill the project.

Bob Persaud, the landowner who wants to put up the solar panels, said that’s unfair.

“It takes away my rights to build something on my property,” Persaud said. “I’m following the rules that are set by this council.”

Patricia Malone, Persaud’s attorney, told the council that her client’s proposal abides by current law. She said the 22 acre property is not a farm and is close to Interstate 95.

“It’s not usable for much of anything so that’s why the client thought solar would be a good option,” Malone said.

Tuesday night’s debate sparked a brief dust-up between Marks, a Republican, and Democratic Councilman Julian Jones.

Jones questioned whether Marks’ legislation would give neighbors more control over the property than the owner.

“What if you wanted to build a brown rancher?” Jones asked. “Should your neighbors have the right to say ‘I don’t like brown?’”

Marks dismissed that as a “red herring.”

Solar farm placement has been a thorny issue for years.

Republican Councilman Wade Kach is promising future legislation to ban solar facilities from what he calls “prime and productive soil.”

Kach said, “We need to look at it differently and the way to look at it is let’s get away from farmland.”

The County Council is expected to hold a second hearing on Marks’ legislation April 1 and vote on it April 7.