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Date: 2/19/2020
SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Planning Board Feb. 11 discussed changing the solar bylaw to allow ground mounted solar panels larger than 1,000 square-feet in residential areas.
Town Planner Alan Slessler said he looked at 10 different towns and cities with similar bylaws to Southwick, including Hadley, Agawam and Northampton. Of the 10 towns, he said only Hadley and Agawam did not allow the panels in residential zones.
One of the issues Slessler looked at during the study was how far the larger installations had to be set back from other properties.
“The setbacks varied, the ones we have a currently 1,200 feet or 700 feet back, while in some of the towns I looked have as little as a 100 or 200-foot requirement,” he said.
During the discussion the board came to the conclusion that if it does make changes to the bylaw to allow solar panels in residential areas, the determining factors would be a minimum acreage to install the larger panels and a maximum limit on the space they can take up on a property.
During his study, Slessler found that Belchertown was one of the towns that had specific restrictions on how much space can be taken up by panels on a property. “In Belchertown, for example, they limit their maximum space to 20 acres and they could only have forest cutting up to 10 acres.”
After talking about general thoughts on the matter along with Slessler’s study, the board opened the discussion up to residents in the audience.
Bob Baker, the resident who initially brought up potential changes to the bylaw at the planning board’s Jan. 28 meeting, said that one of the current factors is determining which homes in town have access to three-phase power. He said, “One of the limiting factors is there must be three-phase power on the street for the connection to be made. I don’t know how much of the town has three phase power lines and if it’s not available, it’s going to be a significant cost to run that power.”
Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty discussed his thoughts on three-phase power and said, “It’s not a permanent barrier but it is a decent economic barrier and a data point to help us figure out how many installations the town can possibly have.”
Slessler said one of the issues in determining revisions to the solar bylaw in residential zones is the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission does not currently have a model solar bylaw for towns and cities to use.
The board ultimately decided to table any motion or discussion about the bylaw until another date after they do more research and find more information. Doherty said, “My inclination is to set this down for another day and in the meantime get the data about properties that are developable and have three-phase power. I’d rather have as much data as we can before we come up with a plan.”
The Southwick Planning Board will next meet on Feb. 25 and resume its discussions about solar bylaw revisions.