Great Barrington — The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on a special permit application for a commercial-scale ground-mount solar energy facility at 53 Van Deusenville Road at 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 11, at Town Hall.
Lodestar Energy of West Hartford, Conn., has put forward the proposal for the facility. Company Project Developer Mike Vittiglio presented Lodestar Energy’s plans at the Selectboard’s meeting on Monday, November 17.
According to project documents, the property is owned by Jeanne Bachetti of County Road in Great Barrington.
The town’s property database lists that Bachetti purchased the 20.8-acre property in February 2021 for $5,000.
While the town’s property database shows a house on the property itself, Vittiglio writes in the special permit application:
[The property] is currently utilized as a largely underdeveloped parcel characterized by open land and limited existing improvements. Historically, the site has consisted of low-intensity rural or agricultural use consistent with the surrounding area’s mix of light industrial, transportation and open space corridors. There are no active residential, commercial, or institutional uses on-site.
The site’s gentle topography, absence of wetlands or steep slopes, and limited tree clearing needs make it consistent with the [town’s zoning] plan’s guidance for appropriate non-residential development that avoids scenic ridgelines, wetlands, and prime agricultural soils. Historic use [of the property] was a gravel pit and unregulated landfill site.
According to plans submitted by company Project Engineer Kayla Keriazes, the facility would occupy 12 acres of the property.
The property is zoned in the R2 Acreage Residential district. According to the town’s zoning regulations, solar energy systems that are roof mounted, with an accessory use of up to a 750-square-foot project area or larger, are permitted uses in the R2 zoning district. However, commercial-scale projects must be approved through a special permit by the Planning Board.
According to project details submitted by the company, the solar project is planned to include 5,500 630-watt photovoltaic panels and 17 solar inverters.
At the November 17 Selectboard meeting, Vittiglio told the board that the closest adjacent western abutting property line and the closest residential property along the road are both more than 500 feet away from the proposed site.
“The project only generates sound during the daytime when the inverters are active,” Vittiglio told the Selectboard. “At sunset, when the project shuts down, there will not be any operating equipment on the site. The inverters are fan cooled, and [the sounds] are roughly 20 to 22 decibels from a distance of 500 feet, which is equivalent to rural nighttime ambient noise, which typically falls in the range between 28 and 35 decibels.”
Vittiglio added that there would not be any permanent lighting at the site.
The project would be located on the rear portion of the property, away from the road.
While it was not a public hearing, Selectboard Chair Steve Bannon accepted public comments from the audience, who all came out against the project.
Resident Michelle Loubert told the Selectboard she is strongly against the project and asked the board not to recommend it to the Planning Board. “This is a huge commercial project, and it’s supposed to be located in the R2 zone,” she said. “The R2 zone is residential, and this project is commercial. Right off the bat, this is a red flag for me because this is not a commercial area. Great Barrington should be striving to maintain the integrity of these zones for residential purposes. My experience in cases where exceptions have been made [with zoning] is that businesses proceed with the activities of their own accord. The town itself has admitted that enforcement is difficult. Until the town gets a hold of enforcement at any level, a project such as this should not be recommended by the Selectboard.”
Resident Donna Jacobs, who told the board she lives across the street from a 12-acre solar panel project, also came out against the project. “There is a lot of noise [from the project], and the construction period was very noisy with the trucks that go ‘beep beep,’ and that went on for months,” she said. “It’s more than the noise and the inconvenience to me because a few of these other older homes [near the project] don’t seem to be very valuable anymore.”
Van Deusenville Road resident Craig Bailly also pleaded with the Selectboard not to recommend the project to the Planning Board. “This is not a low-impact project,” he said. “The whole town will be impacted by the size of this project. A lot of my neighbors I’ve talked to are very against this project. It is too big of a scale in a residential R2 zone.”
Selectboard member Garfield Reed sided with residents who spoke against the project. “I don’t think [this project] is really needed,” he said. “And I have yet to hear anyone [from the company] say how terrific this is going to be and what this is going to do for the community. [The company] has not expounded on the purpose of this and what it’s going to do. And since I haven’t heard that, I’m not excited about it. I would not personally recommend it.”
“Garfield is speaking to a relevant question that I am trying to figure out: What is the benefit of the town having this field here?” Selectboard member Philip Orenstein posed. “Is there a potential benefit to the town? Will this [property] be assessed at a much higher value and therefore generate tax revenue?”
“I would say that, typically, a large benefit of these projects is the consistent tax revenues that these projects provide,” Vittiglio said. “In the past, we have worked out [tax] pilot [programs] with other towns. We can look at the equipment as an upgrade to personal property, and it would, in my opinion, get taxed at a higher valuation, which would equal more consistent tax revenue for the town.”
“We can always use more tax revenue, but at what cost?” Bannon added.
Criticism of the project continued to pile on all through the meeting, including from Selectboard member and electrician Eric Gabriel. “Being an electrician, I deal with solar quite a bit,” he said. “But I have this issue with clearing land to put solar fields up. Solar panels do best when they are on roof lines, incorporated into downtowns and old mill buildings, parking lots, and things like that. I have a hard time with clearing property, whether it is near neighbors or out in the middle of nowhere, to put these in. I’m all for green energy, and I’m all for more electrical work for everybody. But I’m not for clearing land and pulling special permits for this application.”
The board eventually voted unanimously to not recommend the proposed project to the Planning Board.
Click here for the special permit application.
