Greenfield Recorder
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CONWAY — At the eighth hearing on BlueWave Solar’s proposed solar array on Roaring Brook Road, the Planning Board voted to grant the company a waiver for slopes that had sparked discussion before continuing the permitting process to a ninth hearing.
The proposed solar array would be a dual-use system, allowing landowners to continue using the site for farming, with animals able to graze under the panels. The initial application for the project on Ronald Boyden’s farmland described a 4.99-megawatt system with solar panels set 10 feet above the ground, along with a battery energy storage system, a 20-foot-wide gravel access road and a stormwater basin. However, after the company agreed to remove 20% of the panels, the latest designs show a 4.05-megawatt system.
The removed panels would have sat on slopes with grades above 18%. The town’s bylaw for commercial solar photovoltaic systems requires that the systems sit on slopes with grades of less than 15% while allowing the board to issue waivers for slopes up to 18% “based on site-specific parameters.” Before voting unanimously to grant the waiver, the Planning Board heard from town counsel Donna MacNicol.
MacNicol described the Dover Amendment, a section of Massachusetts General Law requiring that “no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit or unreasonably regulate the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy, except where necessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare.” MacNicol then explained several cases in Massachusetts where courts determined that municipalities’ special permit denials for solar projects did not hold up under the Dover Amendment.
With these cases in mind, MacNicol advised the board members to ask themselves whether the waiver would constitute a “reasonable regulation.” She suggested they focus on the percentage of the land in Conway that would be deemed acceptable based on the waiver’s slope restriction; whether the slope restriction, if they chose to deny the waiver, would combine with the other restrictions in the town’s bylaw to essentially create a “blanket prohibition” on solar development; and whether there was “site-specific evidence” that denying the waiver would be necessary to ensure public health, safety and welfare, such as documented concerns related to stormwater erosion.
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Planning Board member Jeff Lacy said the restriction for slope grades of 15% to 18% “envisions a different type of ground that you’re going to be putting [the solar array] on,” with boulders, ledge, trees and stumps that would require extensive work to be removed from the site, instead of farmland.
“That’s much more problematic when you dig the whole thing up so much just to get it acceptable for solar panels,” Lacy said, “but these lands are pretty much ready to go — they’re stable, they’re clear of vegetation, I don’t see any rocks out there to be removed, I don’t see trees to be plucked out. So it sounds like a good place to grant [the waiver].”
Planning Board member Phyllis Craine agreed with Lacy, adding that BlueWave Solar “has made significant efforts to make modifications to the project” that satisfied her initial concerns. Fellow member Cheryl Case said she has not heard or read anything to suggest the array would have a “catastrophic” impact on stormwater drainage or public health and safety.
At the last hearing, peer reviewer Chris Chamberland read a memorandum with information to help the Planning Board in its determination of whether to grant BlueWave Solar the slope waiver. He listed guidelines that state agencies have put forth regarding slopes for solar array sites. The Department of Energy Resources advises that the “site footprint” of a clean energy infrastructure facility sit on a slope below 15 degrees compared to the original slope, which comes to a grade of about 26.8%, according to Chamberland.
Given that these and other standards Chamberland mentioned are “far more lenient,” Planning Board Chair George Forcier said, “It’d be difficult to argue [the 15% to 18% slopes are] unreasonable and a damage to the health, safety and welfare of the town, and have that stand up to scrutiny.”
With the exception of Jennifer Mullins, who is a non-voting associate member of the Planning Board, each member voted to grant the waiver.
The board plans to discuss the site’s proposed battery energy storage system at the next hearing. BlueWave Solar’s Senior Director Steve McDonough said the company is currently deciding between two types of batteries for the system. Before the next hearing, McDonough said he plans to send Fire Chief Christopher Herrmann the two options, so he can weigh in on fire safety.
The next public hearing on the proposed solar array is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at Conway Town Hall.
Aalianna Marietta is the South County reporter. She is a graduate of UMass Amherst and was a journalism intern at the Recorder while in school. She can be reached at amarietta@recorder.com or 413-930-4081. More by Aalianna Marietta
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