AMHERST — Restrictions on how much forestland could be cut to make way for large-scale solar projects and potential mitigation measures for the loss of trees are not included in a draft solar bylaw for Amherst.
But the Solar Bylaw Working Group’s 21-page document, delivered to the Town Council on Dec. 4 after about 18 months of work, strongly promotes agrivoltaics for farmland, which would allow agricultural uses to continue on those properties.
The “Large-Scale, Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics Installations” bylaw is now being referred for further development and refinement to the Community Resources Committee of the Town Council which, by June 30, could have a final draft ready following public hearings and review and comments from the building commissioner, the Fire Department, the sustainability director and conservation staff. A formal review by town attorney KP Law would also be done.
The bylaw’s stated purpose is promoting health, safety and general public welfare through regulations and “by providing standards for the placement, design, construction, operation, monitoring, modification, and decommissioning of such installations.”
The state attorney general’s office, in recent reviews of revisions to bylaws in Pelham and Shutesbury, though, questioned some of the restrictions and whether the towns had provided sufficient evidence that limitations on solar arrays, including through segmenting the community into districts, would protect health, safety and welfare.
Planning Director Christine Brestrup told councilors that the draft bylaw deals with two controversial and contentious topics: how to regulate solar projects on farmland and how to regulate them on forested land.
“For farmland, the working group decided to require that agrivoltaics be used for installations on farmland that are over 5 acres in size,” Brestrup said.
This allows for dual use of land, where farming activities can continue as green energy is generated.
The draft solar bylaw states that the permit granting authority “shall look favorably on solar installations that include agrivoltaics or dual use.”
But the panel didn’t choose to limit the amount of forestland that could be turned into solar projects, and also didn’t require mitigation for the trees that are cut or the lands that are disturbed.
“They were dissuaded from imposing such a limitation because these limitations are not imposed on other types of development, such as housing and commercial development,” Brestrup said.
One worry was that putting such limitations in place might encourage unwanted development.
Instead, the working group is suggesting that the Town Council explore creating a separate bylaw that would restrict tree-cutting for any kind of development, writing in a memo: “The Solar Bylaw Working Group offers that the Town Council might consider such a requirement more broadly for development that involves forest conversion.”
Brestrup added that the draft solar bylaw is mindful of state law, but that it hasn’t been legally reviewed yet.
The Solar Bylaw Working Group was formed in March 2022 by Town Manager Paul Bockelman after the Town Council rejected a temporary moratorium on large-scale solar projects.
Dwayne Breger, a member of the town’s Energy and Climate Action Commission, has chaired the working group. Breger said the draft solar bylaw purposely limits its scope to projects producing 250 kilowatts and above, using an acre or more of land. The bylaw doesn’t deal with solar installations in the built environment, such as rooftops or parking lots, he said.
The draft solar bylaw also doesn’t confront battery energy storage systems, even though the working group’s memo notes there have been examples of lithium-ion battery fires that have been very serious. This encourages the Town Council to maintain certain requirements for these projects, including safely containing fires and thermal runaway and preventing the release of toxic fumes, complying with state and federal fire and electrical codes and regulations, and giving the Amherst Fire Department an oversight role.
Council President Lynn Griesemer said she has concerns about drinking water wells near forestland with solar projects and potential contamination by batteries, and observed there is a growing alarm over battery storage safety, with more and more fires, and the potential of putting the town’s woods at risk.
“Those issues are paramount in my mind, frankly, as we look at some other solar installations in town,” Griesemer said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
