Dr. Ben Carson — the pioneering neurosurgeon who ran unsuccessfully for president and later served as President Donald Trump‘s housing secretary — faces opposition from neighbors of a northern Baltimore County property he owns over efforts to turn it into a solar farm.

Carson and his wife, Lacena, entered into a contract in 2023 to turn 33 of the 47 acres around their $2.4 million home in Upperco into a solar farm. It has put the couple at the center of a heated battle that shows no signs of cooling. Baltimore County residents in Freeland, Kingsville and Sparks have opposed solar developments in their neighborhoods, as have homeowners and politicians in Carroll, Howard and Montgomery counties.

“They are trying to take beautiful farmland, much of it in preservation, and turn it into industrial land so solar companies, power companies and politicians can make a lot of money,” said Sam Blum, a computer specialist who lives near the proposed Carson solar farm in the community of Boring. “They are not only trying to destroy Maryland’s biggest business, agriculture, they are trying to destroy Maryland. It‘s disgusting.”

The Carsons’ lease is with Nexamp, a Boston-based company. Palmer Moore, the company’s vice president, declined to discuss how much the Carsons would make from their lease. Other companies that advertise online list annual lease rates of $500 to $4,500 per acre, meaning the Carson farm could net up to $148,000 a year.

Solar farms — not to be confused with rooftop arrays, which homeowners can install without county or homeowner association approval — are most lucrative for absentee landlords, said Renee Hamidi, executive director of the Valleys Planning Council, a preservation-focused nonprofit. They earn “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said, and are unburdened by views that look like industrial parks.

Solar farms have been a hot potato in Baltimore County since 2018, when County Councilman Wade Kach proposed, then dropped, a moratorium on them. Clean-energy advocates squared off with preservationists in a battle over what was best for the county’s rich soils and pleasant views.

By 2019, the council settled on regulations that limited solar farms that generate under 2 megawatts, as the state regulates installations above that. One regulation limits the number of solar farms per council district to 10. Others dictate how tall the panels can be, how far back they must be from property lines, and what kinds of buffers must line the sides to screen them from neighbors.

All of that may be about to change.

The Maryland General Assembly this year passed a law that essentially puts the state in charge of solar facilities, usurping local zoning powers. That law may or may not green-light Carson’s solar farm; he also has to contend with an agricultural easement that forbids solar on the property.

Maryland is importing 40% of its energy, and energy advocates viewed the state as behind in moving these projects forward, in part because of onerous local restrictions.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, who also serves as a senior vice president and counsel for the solar firm CI Renewables, championed the bills as part of a comprehensive energy package.

Blum and his neighbors groused that Ferguson’s private sector role poses a conflict. Ferguson’s spokesman, David Schuhlein, said the Senate president was one of hundreds of lawmakers, advocates and agency staff who worked on the bill over several years, and that CI Renewables is just one of hundreds of solar companies operating in the state.

Like many of his colleagues who serve in the 90-day legislative session, Ferguson said, he holds outside employment, and he’s always checked with ethics officials to make sure there’s no conflict. In this case, he said, he thinks his expertise helped pass a complex package of laws that will encourage more state-generated renewable energy.

“I think I’ve seen more up close and directly just how difficult and complex this challenge is going to be to get more Maryland-made energy, and so I would say that‘s what has informed my urgency around this,” Ferguson said.

Gov. Wes Moore has until Memorial Day to sign or veto the legislation. Asked about it recently, he was noncommittal.

“I always believe that local governments have an influence as to what happens with their local jurisdictions and their local constituents,” Moore said. “And I don’t think that‘s just about energy. I think there’s a whole collection of things when it comes to how are we thinking about the futures of transportation and housing, etc. I also know that the answer cannot and will not always be, ‘Let‘s just either do slow or no.’”

Carson’s team withdrew a request for a special exception to build the solar farm in an area zoned for resource conservation only two days before a scheduled April 28 hearing. Nexamp’s Moore said the company wanted more time to work out concerns with the community.

In emails with the zoning board, Hanover Road Association President Paul Merritt expressed frustration with the monthslong process, and with the failure to post notice of the hearing on the property, which the law requires.

Palmer Moore called that an “oversight” that was fixed quickly.

Carson, 73, became famous for his extraordinary surgical abilities and wrote the book “Gifted Hands: the Ben Carson Story,” published in 1990. He was the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center at age 33 and led the first surgical team to separate conjoined twins at age 37. A conservative-leaning Black Republican, he unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for president in 2016, then served as housing and urban development secretary during Trump‘s first term. Back in office, Trump recently named Carson to serve on his Religious Liberty Commission.

Carson no longer lives in the Upperco home; records show he is based in Palm Beach, Florida. He did not return calls or messages left at his home or the nonprofit he founded.

County Councilman Julian Jones, whose district includes the Carson property, said he supports both solar installations and local control over where they go.

Jones said he hopes the governor will veto the solar law; if he doesn’t, the Woodstock Democrat says, the council will have no say going forward in the size or location of these farms.

Debate over solar farms has divided the County Council again in recent weeks.

Kingsville residents testified against a proposed solar farm in their neighborhood, which is a mile from the home of their councilman, David Marks. He introduced a bill that would put guardrails on the size and siting of solar farms that would impact the Kingsville farm.

The council passed legislation Monday that regulates solar farms producing less than 1 megawatt, which it still would be able to regulate if the new state law passes. These would be small and provide electricity for fewer than 200 homes.

The Carson project has not come before the council. But county planners recommended against granting the special exception because the farm would bisect an agricultural easement. Only a jurisdiction with eminent domain powers, such as the state, can override the easement terms.

If Moore signs the law, Hamidi said, Carson likely would not need a special exception.

“Agricultural land should be the exact last place where you put solar,” she said. “How are you going to eat if you cover the land with solar panels?”

Baltimore Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.