A Letter to the Editor: Bacon County Deserves Facts—Not Misinformation from Reagan Farr, Co-founder and CEO of Silicon Ranch

Originally Published in The Alma Times on January 28, 2026

Last November I wrote “An Open Letter to Bacon County” that was published in The Alma Times. I wrote that letter to address misinformation that was unfortunately becoming part of the public dialogue around the investment our company, Silicon Ranch, is making in Bacon County. My aim then, as it is now, was to provide accurate information about who we are and what we are bringing to this special community, a place where we have, like many of you, become landowners and taxpayers.

I also committed that we would listen to concerns and respond to questions with honesty and transparency, and we would make the facts available to all who are interested in learning more about us and the work that we do. To this end, not only have we attended every public meeting and spent time with many of you personally, but we’ve also engaged with many of you by phone, on social media, and online. In addition, we established a website (siliconranch.com/bacon) where folks can learn more and ask questions of us, and we’ve published every question we’ve received and every answer we’ve given so that all residents of Bacon County have access to the same truthful information.

As part of this engagement, many of you have contacted us to learn more about opportunities to join the team out on site—which already includes several Bacon County residents—so that you can help us install world-class energy infrastructure in our community. We are working with our contractor and Georgia Workforce Development to plan a job fair in the coming weeks and will provide more details to you as this event comes together.

Despite our sincere efforts to answer questions, provide access to subject matter experts, and respond to feedback, a small but vocal group continues to spread false and flagrantly misleading information in a disingenuous attempt to mischaracterize our Energy and Agriculture Project in Bacon County. One of them recently announced a run for public office, hoping to leverage our project to prop up her campaign with little regard for the truth.

In her Letter to the Editor—published in last week’s edition of The Alma Times—she argued that Bacon County lacks a comprehensive solar ordinance, and on social media she alleges that the current ordinance is not being followed. Neither allegation is true. Local officials spent considerable time over the last couple of years gathering input to develop Bacon County’s solar ordinance, which was passed more than a year ago in late 2024. This ordinance draws from credible sources such as The Georgia Model Solar Zoning Ordinance that was prepared by the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Emory University to share best practices for solar energy here in the state. Bacon County’s version introduces a series of standards that also align with the 2022 Bacon County Comprehensive Plan, a plan that was developed with significant input from a broad cross-section of community stakeholders to ensure Bacon County maintains its character and way of life while also enabling the county to attract capital investment like ours and new sources of tax revenues to support the rising cost of providing education, public safety, and government services to the people of Bacon County.

Silicon Ranch’s project complies with all provisions in the Bacon County Solar Ordinance and exceeds required setbacks, as evidenced by our application filing. In contrast, much of what the vocal critic has proposed involves discarding model solar ordinance provisions based on best practices used by other counties without offering any fact-based rationale for her proposals. For example, she claims there are no preexisting obligations or standards to address environmental concerns, yet Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) requires rigorous permitting, erosion control planning, inspections, and compliance measures for virtually all development activity in the state, including solar.

Asking the government to introduce restrictive ordinances and zoning regulations based on loud voices and misinformation threatens Bacon County’s longstanding respect for private property rights and will limit property owners’ freedom to sell their land or decide what to do on their property. These principles are fundamental to our commonly shared values as Americans, regardless of political party or ideology.

We will continue to engage in a fact-driven, community-centered conversation, one grounded in transparency, not misinformation. We have been grateful to those of you who have shown genuine interest in learning more about how Bacon County can benefit from what we are bringing to this community—whether it’s the money we invest, the taxes we pay, the charitable contributions we make, the jobs we create, the local businesses we support, the energy we produce, or the agricultural products we raise right here on our land.

As your neighbor and as a long-term landowner in Bacon County, we don’t think in terms of election cycles or project phases, we think in decades, and we intend to keep showing up, listening, and engaging for decades to come, long after this conversation has moved on.