WORTHINGTON — The clock is no longer running on BlueWave Solar’s plans for Ridge Road. While the Worthington Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday to move the agrivoltaic project forward into the site-plan review phase, they did so alongside a critical concession: the developer has agreed to bypass state-mandated deadlines. The move ensures the town can exhaustively review the project — which sits within a protected water district — without the pressure of a looming expiration date.
Moving forward, BlueWave and the Planning Board will have to agree on conditions and establish other details of the proposed array, including fire and emergency strategies.
The board’s vote acknowledged that BlueWave’s application, which calls for installation of 7,462 ground-mounted agrivoltaic panels in an open field at 190 Ridge Road, meets all the standards of the checklist for special permit applications.
“The point of this meeting today is to try to put the site plan review permit application into the same hearing structure as the special permit,” said Planning Board Chair Bart Niswonger, addressing the more than a dozen residents gathered in Town Hall. “So if we deem this complete, then Jan. 8, we will consider not just a special permit, but also the site plan.”
BlueWave agreed with the Planning Board to streamline the process this way, combining the site plan review and special permit process — and this has its benefits the Planning Board explained.
Per town bylaws, the Planning Board typically has a 65-day statutory window to finalize the permitting process once an application is deemed complete. But Niswonger said that the town benefits from the agreement with BlueWave since another feature of the agreement is that there will be no 65-day deadline, or any deadline.
Representatives from BlueWave did not attend the meeting, and about a dozen residents maintained a civil tone tone despite their aversion to the project.
Some residents objected to the board deeming the process complete. And concerns still surround why BlueWave needs a special permit to build, because the lot of Ridge Road overlaps the town’s Water Protection District.
For Emily Larabee, her concern is that the town’s legal counsel, KP Law, is not taking a stand for the town by trying to find ways to keep the solar array from going up.
“They’ve demonstrated that they don’t have the savvy or ability to go against these companies,” she said.
The future
During the second half of the three-hour meeting, the Planning Board discussed potential ways to implement bylaws to curb future solar developments.
A petition for a solar development moratorium is currently circulating in town, and Niswonger detailed the specific process required for its implementation and potential adoption.
“Should 200 signatures be gathered for the petition, then it can be submitted to the Select Board. The Select Board will pass the language on to the Planning Board, who will hold a hearing, because the hearing is always required,” he said. “The Planning Board will hold that meeting, then comments and input are taken, then a special Town Meeting will be called.”
If the moratorium passes at a special Town Meeting, he explained that the next step is getting approval from the attorney general’s office. Niswonger said that to his knowledge, the attorney general’s office has not approved a townwide ban for solar arrays.
In Blandford, a temporary moratorium was approved at a special Town Meeting that allowed the town’s Planning Board to formulate bylaws and review safety, hear environmental concerns and establish ways to reach clean energy goals. As it currently stands, the moratorium has not yet received a signature from the AG’s office, according to Niswonger.
Niswonger stressed that in order to have zoning restrictions on solar arrays pass, it is important to have a realistic approach. While the attorney general may not approve a total ban, and he referenced the town of Milton where he said they wanted to limit some 98% of the town. He made the case that the attorney general might approve restrictions on, say, 50% of town, or parts of town rather than a downright ban.
“Roughly 50% of the town is in the watershed of the Westfield river which is designated as a surface water supply,” he explained, and showed options of different maps and the areas the town may want to protect due to threats of runoff and leakage into local water sources.
But these discussions about where to restrict solar developments will remain ongoing as the town tries to implement solar array-specific zoning bylaws — bylaws which town officials described as weak.
By comparison, residents and the board discussed how the town’s marijuana bylaws are prohibitive and talked about how a marijuana grower decided to do business in Plainfield because Worthington’s restrictions wouldn’t welcome their business. Larabee said she would trade a marijuana farm over the large-scale arrays.