June 27 – The Harpersfield Town Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing for a proposed solar farm for July 31.
The meeting will be held at Harpersfield Grange Hall rather than the town hall due to expected public participation, Planning Board Chairman Dean Darling said on Wednesday, June 26.
The planning board heard from Sean Murphy, senior consultant at land management consultancy Flycatcher, and Robert Queirolo, manager of solar development at BlueWave Solar, about plans to build a third solar farm on the Eklund farm property since January. They handed out revised plans and photos showing what the city’s viewing sheds would look like.
The third solar farm would be a 5.3 megawatt solar array on 34.85 acres on Bruce Hill Road. The city planning board has approved two other solar projects on the property. These projects are located on the north and west sides of the property. The proposed third project is located on the eastern slope of the property overlooking the city and village of Stamford.
Since the original site plan was submitted, it has been modified to address concerns raised by planning board members, including groundwater recharge, slope, visual impacts, road use, and the decommissioning plan. Recent modifications have included changes to the number of trees to be removed and an extension of the retention plan.
Planning Board member Walt Keller, who has raised concerns about the groundwater recharge, said after reviewing the latest plans and asking questions about the tree cutting and retention pond that the changes would “basically address my concerns.”
Keller asked if the retention pond could be larger. He also asked why it was lined with rocks, because if it is dismantled, the pond will be removed and the site will become farmland again.
“Delaware County has enough rock, it doesn’t need that on the bottom,” he said.
The city has retained attorney Robert McKertich of Coughlin & Gerhart LLP as counsel and Adam Yagelski, senior planner with Delaware Engineering, as an expert for all solar farm proposals presented to the council.
During Wednesday’s meeting, McKertich spoke about the road-use agreement. Blue Wave filed plans to use Bruce Hill Road as the primary road construction vehicle, but that raised some concerns from Planning Board Member Dusty King. He suggested adding Peters and Odell Lake Road to the list, as the intersection of State Route 23 and Bruce Hill Road is difficult to navigate with a trailer hauling equipment.
McKertich said he would talk to Highway Superintendent Russ Hatch about the road use policy and then contact the company. The roads are tested and examined before construction begins.
Yagelski and Murphy discussed the decommissioning plan, as each company came up with a different amount for the plan. Murphy’s company submitted $188,000, while Yagelski’s said it should be $300,000. Murphy asked why it was so much bigger than the Weaver Road project when it is a smaller project.
McKertich said the Weaver Road project was the first the city approved, but realized other factors needed to be looked at in the plan.
In addition to the proposed solar farm, the board discussed a proposed cell tower to be placed on city property by Verizon.
Jared Lusk and Jack Redmond, who represent Verizon, said the tower will help fill dead zones along state Routes 23 and 10 in the city. The city passed a law in 2001 regulating communications towers, including setbacks that are twice as long as the tower is tall. The setback for the proposed tower would be 232 feet, Lusk said.
The city is proposing to add a provision to the law that would allow companies to apply for a waiver when applying for a project. The exemption would come from the planning board, which would also approve the site plans. The council will hold a public hearing on the tower law change at its July 10 meeting at 7 p.m.
Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.
