Planning Commission Advises Against Developer’s Ordinance For Utility Scale Solar

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At their February 26 meeting, the Charlestown Planning Commission voted unanimously to send an advisory against the proposed ordinance for utility scale solar development to the Charlestown Town Council.

State law mandates that a town’s zoning ordinance allow developers to make proposals to amend the town’s zoning ordinance or zoning map. On January 27, Freepoint Solar LLC submitted a zoning text amendment to the Charlestown Town Council. State law requires that the Town Council hold a public hearing on the text amendment within 45 days and that they request an advisory opinion from the Planning Commission before that hearing. The Town Council will open that public hearing at their March 9th meeting.

Commercial production of electricity is currently a prohibited use in Charlestown and will require changes to the Comprehensive Plan to support this type of land use and then changes to the Zoning Ordinance in compliance with those Comprehensive Plan changes.

After reviewing the zoning text amendment to allow utility scale solar development across the northern section of Charlestown, members of the Planning Commission made the following observations:

  • The current Charlestown Comprehensive Plan does not contemplate commercial solar energy development and would have to be amended before a zoning ordinance for solar can be written.
  • The current Charlestown Comprehensive Plan does have many policies dealing with protection of forest and farmland, the distinction of zoning districts, and maintaining different densities of development and these are not addressed in the zoning text amendment.
  • The proposed 2020 Comprehensive Plan has not been approved or even discussed yet, but this text amendment also does not comply with the proposed Comprehensive Plan.
  • The proposed Comprehensive Plan does contemplate commercial solar, but only allows limits of disturbance for solar which are not greater than what would occur under residential development on the same parcel. This ordinance would allow greater environmental and land clearing impacts than development under the current zoning allows.
  • The area where the ordinance places all utility scale solar is an area identified by DEM as being especially rich in important wildlife habitats and corridors.
  • The Conservation Opportunity maps produced by DEM illustrate the complexity of the different conservation values of the area this ordinance targets for utility scale solar development. None of that environmental complexity or any plan to address it is proposed in the ordinance.
  • Having a one size fits all percentage of land clearing doesn’t take into account the constraints to development on a particular parcel or the conservation value of a particular parcel.
  • The subdivision regulations are tied to environmental constraints and the underlying zoning. When the town adds new alternative uses to zoning districts, those new uses shouldn’t result in greater environmental impacts than the currently allowed uses.
  • The text amendment would increase regulations for homeowners who install solar to provide their home or business energy needs. They currently only need a building permit. This ordinance would subject them to development review.
  • For utility scale solar, the ordinance requires a Special Use Permit, but doesn’t contain any performance standards for the Special Use Permit.

Some of these and other issues were incorporated into a letter to the Town Council which they will receive in advance of their public hearing on this zoning text amendment. That Town Council public hearing will take place on March 9 at 7 p.m. at Charlestown Town Hall.