A Mechanicsburg company trying to bring a solar panel farm energy project into Muncy Township faces a legal hurdle.

Solar Renewable Energy has the burden of proving that any glare produced does not have a significant adverse impact on neighboring or adjacent uses, said Lycoming County Judge William P. Carlucci in an order released this week.

Carlucci’s order was on an appeal filed by landowners on the application for the proposed solar panel farm on vacant farmland along Quaker Church Road near the village of Pennsdale, close to Route 220 and Interstate 180.

Deemed approval of a special exception for Solar Renewable Energy is reversed, Carlucci wrote further explaining his reasons: “The court concludes that the company has met nearly all of the objective requirements of the township zoning ordinance for a special exception for the use of a solar energy system.”

However, the firm has not complied with the uniquely worded requirements, which require that the proposed solar array “shall be placed such that concentrated solar radiation or glare does not project onto nearby structures, roadways or beyond the boundaries of the land upon which it is located.”

The township zoning ordinance subsection requires the applicant has the burden of proving that any glare produced does not have significant adverse impact on neighboring or adjacent uses.

This doesn’t mean the end of the proposal for the solar company, which also is a point in the order summary.

Carlucci’s specifies the ruling does not preclude the company or any other party in interest, from submitting a revised application for a special exception, or a new application.

Nothing in this ruling also is intended to suggest that the proposed solar energy system is not an appropriate subject for a special exception, nor that the county tax parcel is not a proper location for the solar energy system.