Descendants of Founding Father Charles Carroll are getting a tax break from Howard County on a portion of the family’s historic estate that they’ve leased to a solar company.

The agreement between the county, the Carrolls and CI Renewables reduces real and personal property taxes for the next 20 years on 7 acres along Manor Lane near Ellicott City.

The Howard County Council approved the tax abatement last week. It initially raised some eyebrows in part because of the prominent Maryland family name attached to it, though the county has approved similar tax breaks for solar arrays on agricultural land in the past.

The incentive was supported by the county’s Office of Community Sustainability, whose administrator, Tim Latimer, told council members in September that the project moves the county closer toward its climate goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% in 2030.

“If we’re going to advance our energy independence, we hope to see more of these kinds of projects in Howard County,” Latimer said at a public hearing.

The University of Maryland Medical System has agreed to purchase the energy generated by the solar farm to offset the electricity consumption of buildings across its 11-hospital system and stabilize its pricing, said system spokesman Michael Schwartzberg. Howard County hosts several of the system’s properties, including a data center in Columbia.

The abatement also will cost less than an earlier proposal, which could have reduced the county’s revenues by an estimated $293,000 on the 55 acres that CI Renewables has leased from the Carrolls.

Instead, the county is giving up $37,000, or about $1,852 per year, depending on how much energy generated on the property gets used within the jurisdiction.

John Carroll Jr., who manages the family’s property, declined a request for comment. Baltimore-based CI Renewables did not respond to messages requesting comment.

The land is part of Charles Carroll’s once nearly 13,000-acre estate, which was established in 1702. It included a plantation and grand residence called Doughoregan Manor, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971. While the Carroll patriarch was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he also enslaved hundreds of people.

Doughoregan is still privately owned by Carroll’s descendants, though the size of the surrounding estate has diminished considerably since the 18th century. These days, siblings John, Genevieve and Thomas Carroll own a 330-acre farm nearby, which has been operating under the names Vineyard Farms and Manor Farm since 1989. The property produces corn, soybeans, rye, winter wheat and hay, according to emails the Carrolls sent to the county’s Agricultural Preservation Board.

Family members wrote that they believe solar is the way of the future. The panels would be installed on a site deemed unsuitable for farming, in part because an uncle used the area for dumping old tree stumps.

At a September hearing, several members of the public, a community group and council members questioned whether the tax break was necessary.

Councilwoman Liz Walsh pointed to the property’s history as a plantation with enslaved people and said the Carrolls already have received favorable treatment from local government. In 2010, the County Council approved a proposal to put about 500 acres of farmland owned by one branch of the family into an agricultural preservation program in exchange for about $19 million paid out over two decades.

“To some of us, this is not a sympathetic entity,” Walsh told Luke Smith, a representative for CI Renewables, at the hearing.

While the cost of solar energy equipment is decreasing, Smith said, the tax break was needed to make the project economically feasible. The federal landscape has changed significantly for such projects, he said.

President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in July, walked back the country’s efforts to address climate change by phasing out tax credits for clean energy projects.

With federal incentives evaporating, the county’s ability to offer tax breaks “has become even more critical to the viability of large solar projects,” Latimer wrote in an August memo.

Councilwoman Christiana Rigby said Dec. 1 that the county already limits tax abatements for solar projects when less than 50% of the energy generated goes to an entity or residence outside of Howard.

“I don’t want the state to have to open up more coal-powered plants,” she said before voting in favor of the bill.

Walsh remained unconvinced that the project justified the cost to the county taxpayers.

“My vote here is no for its lack of any discernible public benefit,” she said last week.

Councilman David Yungmann, the council’s lone Republican, also voted against the measure, citing Walsh’s comments.

Commercial solar arrays remain somewhat controversial in Howard County and other parts of Maryland, even as some farmers and property owners turn to them for additional revenue streams.

In neighboring Baltimore County, Dr. Ben Carson, who served as housing secretary during Trump‘s first term, attracted opposition from neighbors when he tried to turn 33 of the 47 acres around his $2.4 million home in Upperco into a solar farm. That projects prospect’s have since dimmed.

Back in Howard, other nontraditional farming operations along Manor Lane have run afoul of neighbors. Manor Hill Brewing, a farm brewery nearby, has been locked in a nearly decade-long zoning dispute with residents representing 15 homes along the road.

Months before anyone raised objections to the Carroll’s plans, a family member noted to county officials that the solar array will be “well screened” from neighbors.

“The tide of NIMBYs [not in my backyard] that has arisen to hamper other projects,” John Carroll wrote, “astounds and confuses us.”