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Date: 2/22/2018
AGAWAM – On Feb. 20, the Agawam City Council discussed the move to allow solar farms outside of industrial-zoned areas on a special-permit basis.
During the meeting, the Council referred an ordinance to amend the Code of the Town of Agawam Zoning Ordinances to add solar energy systems to the Planning Board. Currently, there are no town ordinances or bylaws that address not only the zoning requirements for where the solar energy systems can and can’t go, but other issues such as size. The Council is now considering abandoning the idea of establishing overlay districts, and instead, creating special permits for potential solar farm owners. The special permits would allow owners to operate farms on certain agricultural-zoned properties – which are the bulk of vacant parcels in Agawam.
“It’s a two fold issue, most people agree that solar renewable energy is necessary and it is being promoted by the government, as it should be,” said Mayor William Sapelli. “The community is embracing it too, it’s just the major issue in Agawam is we have limited industrial zoned areas left for that purpose. So, we’d like to take a look at possibly expanding but we have to be very careful because there are agricultural areas outside of industrial that are not necessarily conducive to solar farms for variety of reasons, so we have to compromise here.”
The mayor said the permits would allow the local government to study and safeguard any particular solar development at the time of the proposal. The City Council will be the governing body to rule on the special permitting.
Photovoltaic systems and their placement has been a hot-button issue in Agawam and recent efforts to amend zoning regulations have failed. Solar farms – sometimes known as solar parks or solar fields – are the large-scale application of solar photovoltaic panels to generate green, clean electricity at scale, usually to feed into the grid.
“We’re talking about large, ground-mounted solar arrays that are used to generate electricity,” said City Council President Christopher Johnson. “We’re not talking about solar panels people put on the roofs of their houses.”
The solar farms Johnson described can cover anything between one acre and 100 acres, and are usually developed in rural or industrial areas. The farms go through a rigorous planning procedure before they’re approved, taking into account the suitability of the specific site, potential impact on the area and relevant renewable energy targets.
In the Bay State, the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires retail electricity suppliers, both regulated distribution utilities and competitive suppliers, to obtain a percentage of the electricity they serve to their customers from qualifying renewable energy facilities.
When Eversource wanted to build two solar farms in Agawam last year, Northampton Attorney Michael Pill argued that the company’s proposal was not allowed in residential or agricultural zoning districts. However, the City Council rejected a proposed ordinance that would restrict the farms to only industrial-zoned land, explained Johnson.
After a lot of resistance from Agawam residents, Eversource later pulled both of their applications for solar farms. Johnson said much of the public concern stems from the visual impacts of the solar facilities in residential areas.
“They’re worried about property values,” said Johnson. “The biggest impact is trying to mitigate the visible impact on properties – visual mitigation is the biggest hurtle in most situations.”
While a majority of concern surrounds property values and aesthetics, the impacts of solar farms on neighboring property values have not been studied in-depth. Numerous studies, however, found the impact of wind energy generation on neighboring property values to be negligible. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar farms are anticipated to have less of an impact on property values than wind farms, given that they do not cast a shadow on neighboring properties, cause light flickers or have the same visual impact as wind farms.
Some communities across the country have also opted for mitigation measures to reduce visual impacts of solar farms through the use of vegetative screening or decorative fencing, since photovoltaic modules are usually mounted close to the ground.
On the other hand, if the issue for Agawam residents comes down to aesthetics, Sapelli said the town should respect that.
“I’m not going to judge someone on whether aesthetics plays a role in this, that’s personal preference and a personal right,” he said. “It depends on how much of that aesthetic value is legitimate or just fabricated, that’s a the call the City Council will have to make when reviewing special permits.”
The mayor said he believes using special permits for solar farms in certain agricultural zones will serve as a compromise for the situation.
A Planning Board Public Hearing on the issue is slated for Mar. 1, and a City Council Public Hearing for Mar. 19.