Vassalboro planners discuss revised commercial solar farm plan

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members spent the first hour of their two-and-a-half hour Oct. 4 meeting on a revised commercial solar farm plan, and the rest of the time on preliminary discussion of town solar regulations.

The solar project at 2579 Riverside Drive was approved in September 2020. Since then, it has acquired a new owner, a change that needed and got planning board approval, and the board has extended the permit.

The Oct. 4 re-application, as explained by Kara Moody, of Stantec Consulting Services, in Topsham, was for four changes.

• Instead of the tracking solar panels initially planned, which move to follow the sun, fixed south-facing panels will be used.
• Therefore some of the other equipment has been rearranged.
• A new 12-foot-wide access driveway for a connection to Central Maine Power Company (CMP) is planned at the north end of the property.
• Therefore the original 16-foot-wide access road has been shortened.

The result, Moody said, will be a reduction in total affected acreage from about 33 acres to about 28 acres; a reduction in fenced area from about 27 acres to about 23 acres; a reduction in impervious area from about 9/10ths of an acre to about 8/10ths of an acre; a considerable reduction in the wetland area impacted, from about 4,200 square feet to about 1,100 square feet; less grading; and fewer panels.

The state Department of Environmental Protection approved the original project in December 2020. State regulators will be asked to approve the revision, and the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) to approve the new entrance to Riverside Drive.

Planning board members unanimously approved a revised Vassalboro permit, subject to MDOT approval of the entrance permit and planning board review of the decommissioning plan that is part of the state permit. The review is scheduled for the Nov. 1 planning board meeting.

Vassalboro planning board members have approved four commercial solar permits, board chairman Virginia Brackett said. One on Main Street (Route 32), on Bernard Welch’s property about opposite Ron’s Auto Parts, has been operating for a couple years, she estimated. Two others, on Cemetery Street and on Webber Pond Road, are approved but not built.

Permittees requesting extended permits have told board members the delay is in arranging connections to CMP’s grid.

As they develop local standards, select board members currently plan to add provisions specific to commercial solar developments to Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance, which governs commercial and industrial projects. They will ask town attorney Kristin Collins if this approach is correct, or if they and planning board members should prepare a separate ordinance.

The additions, in whichever form, are likely to include requirements for a decommissioning plan (describing how the solar panels will be removed at the end of their useful life and the area restored to its previous state, with a provision for funding); buffering to conceal the solar farm; setbacks from, at least, wetlands, roads and property boundary lines; and maybe height limits.

The goal, Brackett and planning board member Douglas Phillips agreed, is not to prohibit commercial solar developments in Vassalboro, but to set standards “that make them good neighbors.”

Maybe the revisions should include standards for windmills, too, Phillips suggested.

Permit fees also need discussion. Fees are usually set by the select board, not included in ordinances, because if they were part of an ordinance, they could be changed only by a town vote amending the ordinance.

Commercial solar developments need both local and state permits. Select board chairman Barbara Redmond said the state does not regulate them if they cover less than three acres. Town regulations should apply to small developments.

Residents attending the meeting, several of them living on Route 32 near a site for which an application is expected (see The Town Line, Oct. 6, p. 3) offered suggestions for additional requirements. Not all were appropriate for Vassalboro, Redmond and Brackett again reminded them, because the town has no zoning and no comprehensive plan, having substituted a document labeled a strategic plan.

Vassalboro’s 2006 strategic plan is on the town website, www.vassalboro.net, under the heading Ordinances/Policies.

For example, several residents wanted solar panels invisible not only from neighboring properties, but also from people looking over from a height, in what are called viewsheds. Unlikely to happen, Brackett said: hiding a solar farm completely is probably impossible, and the strategic plan says nothing about viewsheds.

Resident Kevin Reed pointed out the difference between a solar farm – or another industry – in an isolated area and one surrounded by houses. Sorry, Brackett said: without zoning, the board cannot consider density of population or proximity to residences.

Reed suggested the updated ordinance include provisions for an electrical inspection. That’s the state’s job, codes officer Paul Mitnik and planning board member Dan Bradstreet replied.

Currently, board members said, local approval comes before state review for a project like a solar farm. State applications are more demanding, and state regulators have more expertise, they said. They surmised that because the state process is longer and more complex, state officials don’t want to go through it and then to have a municipality reject a state-approved permit.

Reed repeatedly questioned the order. Asked why it mattered, since the project would not be built without approval at both levels, he replied that information in the state permit might be valuable to townspeople and town regulators.

After the meeting, Redmond learned from Cameron Dufour, at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, that a prior municipal permit is not a requirement for a state solar development permit. She recommended adding the order in which permits are approved to the list of ordinance issues.

Mitnik said applications for town permits are submitted two weeks before each planning board meeting, and are public record. Residents who want information on a pending project may come to the town office and read the application.

Seeing plans should help alleviate concerns, Brackett added.

Select board member Rick Denico read the just-approved Riverside Drive application as discussion continued. He seemed favorably impressed, occasionally sharing details he found.

The next Vassalboro planning board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1. If the Route 32 solar farm, or any other commercial or industrial application, is on the agenda, board members have said abutters will be notified by mail before the meeting.