At a neighborhood meeting last November, representatives from Origis Energy and Gainesville Regional Utilities sought to allay concerns about a proposed solar farm in the Sand Bluff neighborhood near Archer.
At that November meeting, a few local residents charged that the site selection had been racist: The county was once again conspiring to dump a dirty industry onto a Black and brown neighborhood (in this case a proud, multi-generational farming community).
Origis Energy, the solar contracting company that selected the Sand Bluff site, vigorously pushed back against that view. They noted that the site had been chosen for practical reasons.