Voters to decide on solar moratorium in Worthington

WORTHINGTON — The town’s voters on Tuesday will decide whether to implement a temporary moratorium on large-scale solar arrays, with four of the 10 articles on the Town Meeting warrant taking up the issue of solar and zoning in town.

Special Town Meeting is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. in the RH Conwell Elementary School at 147 Huntington Road.

Article six, if voted in with a two-thirds majority vote, would adopt a citizen’s petition to halt any applications for large-scale solar until June 30, 2027, to allow the Planning Board time to develop more robust limits on such developments in town.

As the article proposes, over this period no board or commission in town would accept or process an application for a large-scale array or battery energy storage system (BESS) greater than 600 kilowatt hours. A battery at that size is approximately the size of a 20-foot shipping container.

Article seven would update the town’s zoning bylaws through June 30, 2027 to restrict large-scale, ground-mounted arrays within certain areas of town to prevent an ecological mishap. These areas include the town’s water supply district and flood plain, the Westfield River watershed, and other habitat areas.

According to the special Town Meeting warrant, “Protection of these critically important public water sources is incompatible with hazardous materials potentially released from solar equipment due to fire, vandalism and extreme weather events, as well as site disruption, fracture of the hydrologic barrier and erosion from large scale installations.”

Article seven also would create a solar overlay district, spelling out areas in town that meet the criteria to develop large-scale arrays.

Article eight would place a moratorium specifically on BESS systems within the same ecologically significant areas as Article seven.

Article nine seeks to revise the town’s site permitting procedure.

Currently, the town has 65 days to process a site plan review after an application has been deemed “complete.” But given the complexity of the large-scale arrays, article nine would give the town more breathing room to issue decisions on special permits by extending that timeline.

The proposed amendment would require the board to open a hearing within 65 days of receiving the application, and issue a decision within 90 days of closing the hearing. But the length of the hearing, and the time to review the the application, would be “unbounded” explained Planning Board Chair Bart Niswonger.

“The concept of ‘deeming an application complete’ is vague, and caused significant confusion this fall,” he said. ” It is also not particularly useful in a small town with no professional planning staff. In a larger town, the planner would review the application, and once they ‘deemed it complete’ they would submit it to the Planning Board for their review.”

He continued: “But in our town the Planning Board is playing both roles which just confuses everyone. The amendment removes the concept of ‘deeming the application complete,’ and moves directly to a hearing to discuss the application.  What is required in an application remains, and if it is missing, the Planning Board can request it of the applicant in the context of the hearing.”

In article ten, the town will vote on whether to petition General Court to establish, “an act” establishing a one-year moratorium on large-scale, ground-mounted arrays and BESS systems.

According to the warrant, the town would enter into a planning process to analyze how to regulate solar while “protecting the town’s ecological resources.”

These proposed limits on solar follow a contentious few months of trying to figure out how to balance the state’s demand for an increase of clean energy, and town residents’ concerns about the possibility of a leak or fire these systems may cause.

The town continues to process an application by Boston-BlueWave Solar which includes 7,462 elevated panels to allow for farming underneath. The proposed project requires a special permit since more than half of it lies is within the town’s water supply protection district.

BlueWave also has applied for permits in Plainfield and Southampton.

Other articles

Articles one through five deal with some housekeeping.

In the first article the town would allow the town moderator to have a vote by voice during the meeting rather than a count.

Action has been recommended by the Select Board and Finance Committee to approve articles two through five, which concern transfers of small sums of money.

Article two would transfer $7,110 from the police part-time wages account to the Police Department expenses account.

If approved, Article three would transfer $702 from the recording secretary wages account to the election expense account to cover the cost of last November’s special town election.

Article four seeks to transfer $573 from the tent account to the accounting and treasury software accounts to pay outstanding balances.

In Article Five residents will vote on whether to transfer $55 from the Fire Department operating expense account to pay Rockwood AG-Grid for cow power metering.

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