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Date: 3/3/2020
SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Planning Board met on Feb. 25 to continue its discussion about revising the town’s current solar bylaws to allow larger ground-mounted arrays in residential areas.
Since the last meeting on Feb. 11 when there was a question about the availability of three-phase power in town, Town Planner Alan Slessler did some research and came to the meeting with a map showing where this type of power ran through town. Currently, there is three-phase infrastructure available along most of the town’s major and industrial roads, including Granville Road, Feeding Hills Road and Hudson Road.
Board member Jessica Thorton said that she thought it was important to look at reviewing the bylaw because solar panels are not an issue that will go away any time soon. “I think it’s well worth looking at and we should explore the possibility of allowing it. I think residents would have something to say if we put a blanket no on it,” she said.
Board member Marcus Phelps explained that while he was in favor of updating the town’s solar bylaw, he said that there were several conditions that needed to be addressed in a new bylaw.
He said, “The only concern I have if we allow it in residential is the visual impact mitigation. We probably want to tighten that up and improve it. We may want to increase the setback and requirement for vegetation that would have to be put there.”
One resident, Corinne Pooler, agreed with Phelp’s sentiment about addressing the visual impact mitigation issue stating, “I happen to live near Goose Pond and the Miller Road area and we have those hideous solar panels in our backyard, and they are very ugly. When there’s no leaves on the trees it is not very nice to look at.”
While there was some discussion about creating a subcommittee to review the bylaw, it ultimately decided that it was too soon to think about organizing one. Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty said, “I’m not sure what you would normally do in a subcommittee is necessary at this point. I think it’s pretty easy to lift once you figure out if you’re going to do anything and what you’re going to do.”
One issue that came up during the discussion is that in some cases, people have had to pay large amounts of money to run power to where it needed to go.
Select Board Clerk Joe Deedy said, “I reached out to Tynic Landscaping who spent $800,000 to run solar. What I found out is that he had three-phase; that wasn’t the issue. He didn’t have the right poles or power source to get back to where they wanted it.”
Thorton suggested that in order to counteract those potential costs, the town could include in the special permit for solar if it was economically feasible to actually run.
“In the special permit process we could have some kind of statement from the company of installation that it can be done and there is some feasibility in this section,” she said.
The next step in the solar bylaw review process is for the Planning Board to get permission from the Select Board to host a public hearing at the Planning Board’s March 24 or April 7 meeting. The Southwick Planning Board will next meet on March 10.