Standish Planning Board Meeting Minutes
Standish Planning Board
Meeting Minutes
March 01, 2021
The meeting was called to order at 6:00pm by Chairman Charles Brown. Present were Deb Boxer, Erika Ewers, Frank Nappi, Phil Pomerleau, Jolene Whittemore, Cheryl Kimball, Zach Mosher, Town Planner and Jackie Dyer, Admin. to Planner and the Planning Board.
Open Meeting
a. Call to order-Chairman Charles Brown
b. Opening Statement from Planning Board Chairman
c. Declaration of a Quorum (7)
Approval of Meeting Minutes from February 01, 2021
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mr. Pomerleau to accept the minutes as written. All in favor.
Approval of Finding of Fact:
- Lynn Larsen 698 Whites Bridge Road, Map 58, Lot 11-Shoreland Zoning Application to demolish and rebuild a single-family dwelling.
Mr. Pomerleau made a motion seconded by Mrs. Whittemore and Mr. Nappi to accept the Finding of Fact as written. All in favor.
New Business:
- BD Solar Standish, LLC, Moody Road, Maps 10&14, Lots 48&1-Site Plan Application for a solar farm
Sean Thies, PE from CES Engineers was present to represent the applicant, BD Solar Standish and Bob Cleaves was also present. Mr. Thies gave an overview of the solar project. He said he is representing BD Solar, the applicant. He said they are doing an approximate acreage of a solar farm of 19 acres, with access roads and fencing. He said there are two access roads into the site, one that abuts the Town property. The other access is on the former Neal Dow property. Sean said that there are a couple of vernal pools identified and they are staying away from those per the DEP report and DEP vernal pool regulations.
Sean said the sight will be surrounded by a seven-foot-tall chain link fence and gates at the access roads. Sean said along the southwest fence, they are proposing some type of screening on the fence and a buffer of trees. The mesh attached to the fence will be a mesh that cannot be seen through, and it is like a privacy screen. He said the project is in an industrial zone and is an approved use. He said there are three pads for inverters and those will have the transformers on them. Sean said they are well behind the calculated noise standards allowed for the Town, there is no lighting proposed and there is underground power from the pads out to the road. Sean said there is some equipment that is above ground and there are proposed poles to be set that tie into Moody Road. Sean said the site was recently clear cut without the applicant’s knowledge and that is why they have proposed plantings on the easterly portion of the site as well as some along the westerly portion as well. Some of the trees will be closer to the road for extra screening. The site will have the stumps removed and will be graded off. Sean said there are big wracking screws that go into the ground and then the panels are installed. He said the installation will take about six months. The panels will all be facing towards the south. He said there is no lighting, no noise, and no signage. The only signage will be emergency signs.
Mr. Pomerleau asked about the no noise and Sean said that there is no noticeable noise coming from the site. The roads are built to Town standards per his conversations with the Town Planner and Fire Chief. Mr. Mosher said that the questions he has are contained mainly in the memo and they have had this reviewed by a third-party engineer. He said he feels the biggest question is about the visual buffers. Mr. Brown asked the relationship between BD Solar and the name on the application. Robert Cleaves said that when they go into a specific Town, they associate the project with it. Dirigo Solar and BRNG is the same as that they are now together but owned by BRNG. Dirigo is in Maine and BRNG is in Dublin, Ireland. Mr. Brown asked if something official was needed to link them together as one for the Town, and Mr. Cleaves said they could provide that.
Mrs. Boxer asked about who is responsible for the decommissioning and Mr. Mosher said it would be BD Solar Standish and Mr. Cleaves said they would provide the financial assurance. Mr. Pomerleau asked that if the company failed, what happens? Sean Thies said that BD Solar Standish will have a financial surety in place, a bond, or a letter of credit, so if the company failed, the Town would have the funds to decommission it. Mr. Mosher said it would be a performance bond not a letter of credit. Mrs. Boxer asked about the buffer area and it was completely disregarded, where will the plantings be as regarding the Town’s ordinance on collector or arterial streets? Mr. Mosher said that unfortunately Moody Road is not an arterial or a collector street.
Mr. Nappi asked about the seven-foot fence and how did they reach that? Mr. Nappi said that all the solar projects he has seen have eight-foot fences. Mr. Thies said that they went by the code requirement. Mr. Nappi said the best practice would be an eight-foot fence and Mr. Thies said all the Maine projects they have done have had seven-foot fences. Mr. Nappi asked about electrically grounding the fence and said the electrical code calls for it to be so. Mr. Thies said he is not an electrical engineer but the ones he has worked on have called for this depending on how far the fence is from the project. Mrs. Boxer asked about the area outside the fence and what was the acreage they would be fencing. Mr. Thies said the 19 acres includes everything inside of the fence and the access roads. They have not included the planting as part of the part of the area to be developed. Sean said he does not feel that the plantings will make up an acre. Mrs. Boxer asked about the connector lines and Sean said it is almost at the end of the road closest to Moody Road.
Mr. Pomerleau said that he does not like the idea that the property was clear cut and that the solar company says they knew nothing about it. He said that this was under tree growth and a fine was paid by the landowner. Mr. Pomerleau said its sad that this project is in front of us and is it considered one of the largest one that this company has going? Mr. Cleaves said it considered under the PUC and solar commission to be a smaller one, not one of utility scale. He said there are many that are 4 times the size of this one and this one is small. Mr. Pomerleau asked about noise and they say noise is not a problem, how big are the inverters and their application says the noise at night will exceed the town standard at 6.4-6.8 decibels. Sean Thies it is a humming noise and will not producing noise at night. He said they only produce noise when the sun is out.
Mr. Pomerleau said that their report says it will make noise and if he lived in a neighborhood, he would not want to listen to any constant noise day or night. He said we live in a bedroom community and people want their peace and quiet. He said that we had a dance hall years ago that you could hear from far away. Mr. Pomerleau said that before he ever approved this application, he might want to go and listen to one and see what noise these produce. Mr. Thies said the inverter is no where near the road or close to the property line. Mr. Pomerleau asked about a back up alarm on a tractor and said it exceeds the decibel limit. Sean said they do these projects and must meet the noise standards. Mr. Pomerleau said that this needs to be ironed out and make sure we have no problems that are after the fact when the solar farm has been built and the neighbors are complaining. Sean said that if there are issues, they can do sound silencers or barriers that help, if there is sound from these inverters. Mr. Pomerleau said he feels that are to many what if’s that can happen, and things they are not sure about.
Mr. Thies said they do need to meet the noise ordinance and will. Mr. Brown asked that if they do install this and the noise is greater, they will do something then? Mr. Thies said at that point they would. Mr. Pomerleau said that if its greater coming off the property, that does not mean the neighbors would not hear that. He said if the houses were there first, take care of the houses. Mr. Pomerleau said that he does not want to be in this room a year from now with the neighbors complaining about constant noise. Mr. Thies said he feels they will not hear anything and Mr. Cleaves said the problem would be fixed if they do. Mr. Cleaves said they have had no problem with any noise issues yet. He said they spent a lot of time on visual buffering. Mrs. Boxer asked about any demonstrations or something visual they could listen to.
Mrs. Boxer asked about the trees being gone and what the fence would look like, color, etc. Mr. Thies said that they are usually green mesh but can be any color the Board wants. Mr. Cleaves said they are open to any suggestions from the Board and the neighbors. Mr. Cleaves said they want to respect the neighbors. Mr. Pomerleau asked about cleaning the panels and Sean said they use water, no chemicals, or solvents. Mr. Pomerleau asked about glare and Sean said that all the panels are turned away from the neighbors and pointed toward the south. He said they absorb the glare. Mr. Pomerleau asked about how hot the panels got and Mr. Cleaves said you can touch them. He said they get warm but not hot and are no danger to birds or other animals.
Ms. Ewers said that she feels some would feel better if they could see a video or something of that nature of a working solar farm. Mr. Nappi asked about why it said in the report that it would be louder at night and Mr. Thies said that the calculated noise came from a report. He said the noise level goes down at night as the only draw is from the sun during the day. Mrs. Whittemore asked about a proposed building and would there be any? Mr. Thies said they have no plans for any buildings at all.
Mr. Brown asked about the exact dimensions as the former Dow parcel has no measurements or distances on the plan. Mr. Thies said their plan was taken from a boundary survey and they would add the distances, measurements, etc. Mr. Brown asked about servicing the project and did they need a parking lot or park on the driveway. Sean said that there would only be one vehicle at a time doing any servicing or upkeep. Ms. Ewers asked about the private screen mesh and the plantings. Mr. Thies pointed out where the proposed planting sites are along the property line. Ms. Ewers asked if the mesh would be like a sound barrier and Mr. Thies said he thought it would not act like a barrier, but the trees and plantings would. Sean said that when they found out the land was going to be logged, he met with the property owners and discussed where and what was going to be cut. He said that they made recommendations, but he would leave it at that.
Mr. Pomerleau asked about the locations of the inverters and Mr. Thies showed him, one being about one hundred feet from the road with no buffer right now, but proposed plantings and trees. Mr. Brown asked about an analysis about the height of the houses looking down or across to the site. Mr. Thies said they did one section today and they did the elevation. He said they would see a little over the fence and see the tops of the panels a bit, with a wooded area blocking some of them. He said on that site the panels are 8 to 9 feet tall with a 35-foot height restriction. Mr. Pomerleau said its sad that this industrial zone will not be creating jobs, as that was what the industrial zones were created for. Mr. Cleaves said there are temporary construction jobs and people can sign up for this to help cut back on their electrical bills. He said this will service 1500 homes.
Mr. Pomerleau said that solar power is misleading and electric heat was used in homes back in the 70’s. Mr. Pomerleau said it is not like getting free electricity and where are their contractors from. Mr. Cleaves said they hire Maine companies to build these projects. Mr. Theis said the CMP substation that would connect with this has the capacity and they have entered into an inner connection agreement with them. He said the projects were designed with CMP’s needs in effect and this is a single line project. He said CMP does not do the work but sends them the bill. Mr. Brown asked about the stumps and Mr. Thies said they are dug up and then ground. Arter they are ground the area is smoothed back over. He said there will be a few areas around the land where there are stumps. Mr. Brown asked about making a four- or six-foot mound out of the tails and ground stumps, that they could do their plantings on and the fence, raising it higher. Mr. Thies said that may be a possibility.
Mr. Thies said they asked the landowner of the Dow lot not to cut any closer than fifty feet from the road. Mr. Brown asked for public comment:
John McLaughlin from 19 Moody Road had a question about the noise and said he is very concerned about the noise and being able to sleep. He said he was not sure about the allowable decibels, but the decibels coming from the project, 64, would be the same as an air conditioner. He said it would be nice to move the inverter further away than the corner of his bedroom window and could it be put in a soundproof box of some sort. He said there is a standard of well being that needs to be maintained in people’s homes. John said the visual buffer would mean he would be looking over the fence and the fence being lower than his house elevation would mean they would be looking at the panels. He said he is concerned that the buffer is not adequate. John said that after the area was cut, it now amplifies noise from Route 25, something he has never heard in 35 years living there. He said he is concerned that all the open space will act like an amplifier. He asked if the visual buffer would really be doing anything? He said the engineer of the project told him that it would require additional support and they might be looking at an easement from him and what does that mean? He said he would appreciate any information.
Mr. Thies said that as far as the noise, the information in the packet was based on the closest inverter. He said where they have moved the equipment pad, the noise would be lower and there would not be any noise at night as the noise only happens when the sun is out. Mr. Pomerleau said there are people that work during the night and sleeping during the day. He said there would be noise during the summer from 7 in the morning until 8 at night. Mr. Thies said he does not think anyone on Moody Road would hear any noise at all from this, but he has nothing to show to prove this. Mr. Pomerleau mentioned Rock Row in Westbrook and all the noise for miles coming from there. Mr. Thies said they can calculate where any noise levels are coming from and how much. Mr. Pomerleau said that he wishes that he knew what kind of noise would be coming from this project as he had a noise in his ears for several days that drove him crazy. He said he cannot imagine hearing a noise all the time. Mr. Thies said he thinks it is a hum like when your refrigerator comes on in your kitchen.
Mr. McLaughlin asked if the inverter could be put in a building and Mr. Thies said that they will not put it into a building unless there is a problem. Mr. Cleaves said he is hearing from the neighbors that major concern is noise and that they can do a calculation from the inverter and see what the decibel of the noise is. Mr. Cleaves said that he would be happy to try and find a video of some sort of a solar project and see what the noise is if any. He said that if it takes mitigating a noise problem, they would be more than happy to fix it. He does not want to be chasing something that is not a problem, but he would like to be able to fix it if it becomes one. Mr. Brown said that he has seen fences around generators and Mr. Cleaves said that might be a solution to look at.
Mr. Thies said the homes on the opposite side of the road sit higher than the solar sight and the panels are slightly higher than the fence. He said the ground goes up and down and they may see some panels but not all. He said they can only plant trees that are so tall and, in a few years, they will have grown quite a bit and made more of a buffer. Ms. Ewers asked if the fence could be built 8 feet tall along the front on Moody Road? Mr. Brown asked if white spruce would do well in the soils there? He said they grow up to 60 to 90 feet tall. Mr. Mosher asked if there was anything in the plan about the vegetation and plantings? Mr. Thies said that they have done the vegetation plan for inside the site with the grass and plantings, but they can add to the plan if needed. Mr. Cleaves said there was a question about an easement, and he said they are not looking for an easement over anyone else’s property. Mr. Thies said all the work within the Moody Road right of way was CMP’s and he is not aware of anything. Mr. Brown said that any easement was CMP’s responsibility, and they (CMP) would contact the owner if needed.
Eva Thompson from 21 Moody Road spoke. She said that all the concerns the neighbors are bringing up is valid. She said they all were amazed at the clear cutting that was done and no one knew why. She asked if there was a buffer that had to be left and Mr. Mosher said not that he was aware of any. She felt this was poor planning. She said that she wonders about property values and no one would buy a house across from a solar farm, she said she surely would not. She said that she wondered about electromagnetic waves that come from the solar panels. She said she has been doing a lot of reading about solar farms. Eva said that there has been a lot of sickness on their road, and it was blamed on the former GTE Sylvania plant. She said they also had the dump on the end of the road. She said they have four houses on the road where one young man died of a brain tumor, another one had a brain tumor and her daughter had a rare form of cancer, also another neighbor has stage 4 brain cancer. She asked if there are power surges with high electrical output, did they all need to have power surge equipment installed so they do not have to replace things like computers? Eva asked about solar panels having a life span of 20 years and how do they get rid of them when they do not work anymore? Do they send them to foreign countries? She brought up the problems in Texas with having things freeze up and would it happen here? Eva said that if this is built, she will see every solar panel from her front window, as the land goes up and up. Eva said that if the solar farm is approved, then they will learn to live with it.
Mr. Cleaves said with respect to electromagnetic fields, this is not an issue they have encountered. He said that he does not dismiss any issues to do with health and would be more than happy to come back to the Board with any information he can find on the electro magnetic fields. He said that he is not aware of any power surge issues but will also address that with CMP. He said he will research that also so that the Board is comfortable. Mr. Cleaves said that the life of the solar panels is longer than 20 years and when they do a decommissioning, they will have to dispose of the materials according to state and federal laws. He said with respect to Texas, solar farms work better in cold weather and their (Texas) wind turbines and such froze up. Mr. Cleaves said this is a different area of technology. He said that with visual buffers, they take this very seriously. He said they will take another look at visual buffers and see it they can beef up what they currently have in place. He said, as Sean pointed out, these panels are 8 to 9 feet high, but if it was him, he would rather look at this as opposed to something like a storage unit that can be 35 feet high. Mr. Cleaves said this is an industrial zone and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however, they want to get along with their neighbors and be respectful. He said that goes with the sound issue also.
Eva Thompson said that Mr. Cleaves did not comment on property values. She said she understands that Standish residents can apply to have a decrease on their electrical bills. She said that the next time a project like this comes up, she feels that they can find a better place to have it that is wide open and does not have the property owners and abutters as close as this location has.
Mr. Brown asked about the site selection process and Mr. Cleaves said that this is because it is zoned industrial, so they chose it. He said they have several permitted projects, one in Palmyra which had 60 acres in the commercial zone. He said they are not aware of any projects that have lowered abutters property values. He said this is why towns have zoning ordinances.
David Roberts from 31 Moody Road spoke and he said the University of Rhode Island did a study in New England, on what happens to property values near solar farms. He said the study was done so that solar projects were about a half mile from houses. He asked if there would be any impact on wells, as they all have private wells and will this impact water runoff. He said he feels that a fence will not do much as far as not seeing it. He said he would like to know about buffers, how long will it take to construct this and what impact will it have on the electrical lines? Mr. Roberts said that the back of the solar panels will not be a very pretty site to look at.
Mr. Thies said that as far as storm water, they have included the storm water run off as done in a peer review. He said that he does not see that it will impact any wells and they are not impacting any groundwater. He said they have proposed one tree every twenty feet and it looks like 43 trees to be planted across the front of the property. Mr. Pomerleau asked what diameter the trees are, and Mr. Thies said they are close to 8 feet tall and maybe a 2–3-inch diameter. He said that construction time is usually around a six-month period. He said they are restricted by wetlands and vernal pool buffers. He said they will look at other potential buffering’s along the road and may have to move the site a bit further from the road. He said in the 61 acres, there are a lot of wetlands and vernal pools. Mr. Brown asked what is the set back from the proposed fence? Mr. Thies said it is a 50-foot set back, and they need space between the fence and the solar panels so they can cut the grass and do maintenance.
John McLaughlin asked what happens now? He said it looks like they need to make some changes and come back to the Board. Mr. Brown said that once the public has voiced their concerns, the Board will deliberate and look things over. Mr. Cleaves gave his email address so they can exchange information and concerns. Bob@Dirigosolar.com. Mr. Mosher asked that people reach out to him as well. He said he knows that other people have concerns as well, per an email he received. He said the landowner has certain rights when it comes to stripping or logging their land. He said that if you are going to disturb the site prior to Planning Board approval, that would be a concern. He said the Town is not paying at attorney any money on this project. He said that he would like to see a visual buffer.
Bill Tracey from 15 Mt. View Lane said that he thinks the project is really neat. He hopes this project can happen as it is happening all over the country, and he hopes it can have the least amount of impact on the people that live nearby. He hopes they can satisfy the sound concern to the local folks and he said he hopes they approve the project.
Mr. Pomerleau made a motion seconded by Mrs. Whittemore to close the public hearing. All were in favor. Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mr. Pomerleau to get more information before the Board moves forward and makes an informed decision. The next Planning Board meeting will be on April 5th, 2021. The Board would like more information on noise, buffering, property values and other things as well. Mrs. Whittemore said that the Board can look at the study that was done, but they need to have more information than just the study URI did. Mrs. Kimball asked if the solar panels would help to block noise from the property being clear-cut? Mr. Thies said he was not sure, but the panels probably would not block the noise as much as the trees did. Mr. Pomerleau said he would like to hear a machine that makes 60 decibels of sound and what would make it. Mrs. Kimball said she had looked it up and it was not very loud. Mr. Thies said that he would gather as much info as they could.
Mrs. Whittemore said that there would only be one or two cars there a couple of times a year. Mrs. Whittemore asked how long it has been zoned industrial and Mr. Pomerleau said a very long time. Ms. Ewers asked about numbering their pages starting with one through the very last page as she found the sections confusing. All in favor of tabling this until April 5,2021.
Public Hearing:
- Amendments to Standish Town Code, Chapter 181(Land Use) and Chapter 252(Streets and Sidewalks), Regarding Performance Guarantees
Mr. Mosher said this is before the Council and just some cleanup details being done. This would be changed so that the town can ask for a performance bond, not a performance guarantee. Ms. Boxer said there is a conflicting statement about public use. She could not find it and will email what she found to Mr. Mosher. Mr. Pomerleau made a motion seconded by Mrs. Whittemore to forward this with changes back to the Council. All in favor.
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mr. Pomerleau to adjourn. All in favor.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm.