WORTHINGTON — Residents packed the RH Conwell Elementary School Tuesday night and overwhelmingly approved all 10 articles on a special Town Meeting warrant, including four articles calling for a temporary moratorium on large-scale solar developments.
A bulk of the first hour of the meeting was spent debating a proposed amendment to Article 6, which asked residents to adopt a citizen’s petition signed by 258 residents to halt 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.
But the citizen who organized the petition, Helen Sharron Pollard, suggested adding a last-minute amendment to the article to clearly state the health and safety concerns surrounding such developments. The amendment also changed the article from limiting large-scale solar to specifically limiting battery energy storage systems (BESS).
Given the “complexity” of the changes to the article, Town Moderator Kevin O’Connor rejected the amendment, and voters approved the language of the original article.
But since the goal of the change was to make the purpose of the bylaw more clear for the attorney general’s office, which must give final approval on all of the solar bylaw changes approved on Tuesday, some residents expressed concern that Article 6 might not pass that test.
Regardless, Planning Board Chair Bart Niswonger said he doesn’t anticipate the attorney general will approve the changes.
“I don’t think that amended version had any chance passing AG’s review either. The issue is that it prohibits some aspect of solar throughout the town,” he said. “Health and safety is an important issue and that is something that allows regulations, but if it [the regulations] prohibits (solar development) throughout the town, that’s the issue.”
Meanwhile, Articles 7 and 8 were much more specific about the locations where solar projects would be banned.
Article 7 calls for a moratorium in effect through June 30, 2027 to restrict large-scale, ground-mounted arrays within the town’s water supply district and flood plain, the Westfield River watershed, and other habitat areas. Article 7 also calls for the creation a solar overlay district, indicating areas in town that meet the criteria to develop large-scale arrays.
Article 8, if approved by the AG, will place a moratorium specifically on BESS systems within the areas identified in Article 7.
Residents also approved amending the town’s site-plan review process related to large-scale solar projects. Instead of a 65-day window, the Planning Board would have control on how long to continue public hearings. If approved by the state, the amendment would require the Planning Board to open a hearing within 65 days of receiving an application, and issue a decision within 90 days of closing the hearing. But the length of the hearing, and the time to review the application, would be up to the discretion of the board.
In Article 10, residents approved a petition to ask the Legislature to establish a one-year moratorium on large-scale, ground-mounted arrays and BESS systems. The language for the article was provided by state Sen. Paul Mark and state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa.
According to the warrant, over the course of the year the town would enter into a planning process to analyze how to regulate solar while “protecting the town’s ecological resources.”
None of the moratoriums, however, would impact applications that have already been submitted, including pending plans by BlueWave Solar to develop 7,462 ground-mounted agrivoltaic panels in an open field at 190 Ridge Road.
This proposed project largely ignited community members to implement a moratorium, especially since the state will roll out new regulations for large-scale arrays on March 1.
K-9 relief
In other business on Tuesday, residents approved a handful of articles involving money transfers, including Article 2, which transfers $7,110 from the police part-time wages account to the Police Department expenses account.
Police Chief John Scobie, who serves as the town’s only police officer, told the community that the funds will be used for his new, furry partner. He said the department recently received a grant of $9,800 for a K-9, but the amount does not cover all expenses including buying the dog for $10,500. Scobi also will need money to travel to Boston for training.
“The K-9 will both be used for tracking and patrol. It’s also going to be a narcotic and firearms K-9. It’s also going to be my backup, my partner,” he said.
He explained under current staffing, if a child or person were to go missing it would be an hour before a dog could be brought town, “and that would be on a good day.” But investing in the dog would mean Worthington would have a dog in a matter of minutes.
“So here in the near future we’re not hiring anybody. It’s going to be me and a dog. That’s what you’re going to have. Trust me, it’s going to be a great dog,” he said, which got a laugh from the room.
After explaining more benefits to the town for having a K-9 police dog, Scobie said: “So that’s kind of what it’s for. Trust me, in the long run the dog will help. And you guys will all meet the dog, hopefully all in a good way, but you’ll all meet the dog,” which was again a moment of comedic relief during the two-hour meeting.