Solar farms be quiet contributors to the struggle against global warming, but the latest such facility proposed for Westport is a bad fit for the woods off Horseneck Road.

It also illustrates well the reasons that every development, no matter how benign and beneficial it may sound, must be guided by strict rules designed to protect neighbors and environment. Tiverton, which is crafting its own set of solar regulations now, and Westport, whose rules apparently need some fine-tuning, could learn from this one.

Westport has been riding a string of solar success lately, with a half dozen farms either up and running or in the works. In each case so far, the neighbors have welcomed — or at least had little to say about — the solar arrays next door.

That’s because hardly anybody knows they’re there. In just about every case they are tucked out of sight on “back forty” farm fields or far from homes.

Not so the Horseneck Road proposal.

The plan unveiled to zoners recently shows the farm’s long south border coming within 30 feet of the small Gooseberry Farms Lane neighborhood. Every person living on that lane is aghast at the proposal, as are others on nearby roads.

They moved there, all said, out of a desire for a peaceful place out in the woods with views of trees and wildlife. And they were assured by the area’s large-lot residential zoning that this would not change.

Which is why they were stunned to learn that a developer wants to clear-cut 17 acres next door to make way for a large scale, industrial looking solar facility.

Trees would be cut to within 30 feet of the property line and the few surviving deciduous trees might be lopped off to prevent shading of solar panels. A chain link fence, and late offer of a wood fence, would do little to change the fact that their woods view will be gone, they said.

There are other worries — drainage, runoff impact on the Westport River, and the environmental harm done by cutting down every last tree on a 17-acre site. It would indeed be sad irony if pristine Westport woodlands are destroyed in the name of ‘protecting the environment.’

Done right, solar farms are a fine way to produce clean energy without pollution or noise. That does not, however, always make them good neighbors.

Town zoning assured “residential,” and if those rules are to mean anything, that’s a promise that must be kept.