STANDISH PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES
Standish Planning Board
Meeting Minutes
1-3-2022
Charles Brown
Welcome to the January 3 meeting of the Town of Standish Planning Board. This is a public proceeding unless up unless the board specifies specifically votes. You have the right to hear everything that's being said, and look at all the exhibits that are offered. Please notify me if you are unable to hear or to see the materials. The Board works from a prepared agenda. We have two or three items that the Board needs to take care of, one finding of facts and approving previous minutes.. One item on the agenda and the old business which is Standish Fish and Game and new business which is Orchard Road Solar off Rose Lane. And then we have a public hearing on the Amendment to an ordinance, Standish Chapter 181-Land Use. The applicants have the burden to prove to the Board that their application is complete, and that the application meets all the Town's standards. Any person wishing to address the Board may do so in accordance with the following procedure. As the Board will open the public hearing, the applicant will present their project, the Town Planner will have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments and hear responses. Board members will then have the same opportunity to ask questions and hear responses. The hearing will then be open to the public for their comments and the applicants’ responses. And the public hearing will then close for deliberation on the project. Following the decision on the application either towards the end of the meeting or at the board's next public meeting, the Board will prepare and adopt a written decision that will be mailed to the applicant. The Board shall exclude irrelevant, immaterial and unduly repetitious evidence. All citizens shall refrain from interrupting other speakers. This meeting is being tape recorded. It's very difficult to hear what is being said when multiple people speak at the same time. All people should avoid person attacks and conduct themselves in a civil courteous manner. Expected of all meeting participants for speakers, anyone should address questions through the chair. Speakers shall not attempt to engage in debate with other meeting participants. The Board will now open the public hearing. And we'll work through our housekeeping things. We have six members here from the Board. We have a quorum.
Charles Brown
The first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the December 6, 2021.
Mr. Struebing made the motion to approve. This was seconded by Mr. Wright. All in favor.
Charles Brown
Next item on the agenda is the Finding of Fact. Roger Mosley's property for a Standish Solar 1, LLC. Map 6, lot 64 at 425 Bonny Eagle Road. It all looks straightforward to me, so I'd entertain a motion to approve. A motion was made by Mr. Nappi and seconded by Mr. Struebing. All in favor. The first item of business is old business the Standish Fish and Game Club on Middle Road lot. Map 9 lots 8 & 9-site plan application for shooting range. The applicant has requested that the Board table this application to allow them more time to compile the material they need to fully address the concerns that were raised at the December meeting. A motion was made by Mr. Struebing and seconded by Mr. Nappi to table this application. All in favor. Beth Brown was present from the Fish and Game Club and said the soonest they can get their site planner out there is April.
Ben Cutter
Just for the application, people want to keep abreast of what's going on and made aware of when they will be coming back. The agenda will go on the website probably two weeks before the meeting, you can also sign up for a email list to automatically have those agendas emailed to you. That's probably the best way to know what's coming up. Otherwise, you can reach out to me anytime and I can tell you what is coming up.
Tony Folsom
Are we going to talk about the workshop that comes up? Is there going to be workshops about this before all agendas?
Scott Hastings-Planner
The meetings, including workshops will be put on the website and will be noticed through that. For regular meetings, we usually have that agenda set up two weeks ahead of time. So if you go to the town's website, right on the front page, there's a bunch of buttons just under the picture and one of them is a sign up for notifications. This is still an active application.
Tony Folsom
Where this is being tabled, do they have to start over again? Do they submit a new application and pay again or how does that work?
Charles Brown
Not necessarily. We have the opportunity to go through all the items that they were required to submit. They need to be given the opportunity to furnish any information the Board has asked for. If something is not what the Board feels it should be, they can come back with more.
Tony Folsom
Okay, so this is like T ball from time to time. Does that work? So, they can keep submitting and submitting until its passed like they want it to be, no matter what others think.
Charles Brown
The applicant has to be given the opportunity to present all information related to the project and all information the Board has asked for. They are given the chance to meet the ordinance and bring forward new information.
Tony Folsom
So they get as many chances as they want to try and push this through? And make as many changes as you want.
Charles Brown
I don't have the answer to that,
Scott Hastings
With each meeting that happens, you're bringing new information. And then at some point, the role of the Board, at their discretion, is to give more time to provide more information or to feel that something or the outcome is knowing more information than they will take whether that's to approve or deny. If it is denied, there is no legal reason why they cannot apply again, assuming that they are doing something to change the application to make it conform to whatever elements is needed.
Tony Folsom
Where do I find out if the Middle Road location or clarify if Middle Road is a discontinued road? Where do I get that information?
Scott Hastings
We can talk about it and you can come see me. I will dig into it.
Tony Folsom
Well, I will see. I still believe it's an abandoned road. Just like the Cram Road was a abandoned road and people trying to redevelop that. It's not. And why you guys have already got would have to add in? The Fish and Game Club's land is not only the end of that road. So that has totally changed.why? And people know who's laying on each side. And I've heard them say that they don't have any ATV trails on their land. They do because that road is the winter snowmobile trail one that goes right up to their land and that's where the trail is.
Tony Folsom
Also, an elected official on the Town Council was the one that presented the application. I don't think this is right at all. I do know we had a lawyer at the site walk. I feel this is a conflict of interest.
Scott Hastings-Planner
The Town Councilor that presented the application was in no way representing the Town Council. He is a member of the Standish Fish and Game Club, is a resident and taxpayer. This application will be brought back when the Club feels they have all of the necessary information. He is not a decision maker of the Board and has the right to be the presenter.
Ben Cutter
Do you have any idea when this will be back in front of the Board?
Beth Brown-Malia
We feel that a rough estimate for the Club to be back here is April or after. Our surveyor that is doing the site plan can't be out there until at least April. That is as soon as he can get there right now.
Charles Brown
Okay we'll move on to new business. The application is Orchard Road Solar on Rose Lane Map 10 lot 67 and Lot 61- Site Plan application for a solar farm.
Andrew Keller
Do I start with the Board. Scott also has a handout that we put together that goes to two versions of it.
Andrew Keller
My name is Andrew Keller. I'm from NH Solar Garden, which is the developer of these community solar projects. Larry Bastian from Teradyne Engineering will answer a lot of the questions for you and give you a lot of engineering and some of the more technical details. And what I wanted to do is just kind of walk the board through just a little background. It sounds like you've already been through this with one of the solar projects that have come before this one. I just want to kind of walk you through and maybe that'll answer some of the questions if not, I'll be happy to try and answer them. Larry can speak more specifically to the details of the engineering so. So I think what's important to understand is, you know, just from a background perspective, I just wanted everybody to understand the team that was working on this project since last year, a little bit more than a year ago. Again, as I said, my name is Andrew, the owner of Solar Garden. My wife Carrie also handles some of our development strategy work. She's not here tonight, she's at home with the dog. And then Larry, and Adrian and Jeff from Teradyne have been the team that have worked with us closely through the process. I've been doing this for over 10 years. Here's some examples of some projects that I've done in the past. These are some more critical projects that we've done, both in Maine and New Hampshire. That project there on the right is the largest and first project ever done in the state of New Hampshire and the first ever approved by the state for that type of critical usage. We have a breadth of experience, you know, and this site has some challenges. And we've been working through some of those challenges. But we understand how important that is. And that's why we do very well with folks like Teradyne to really help us shepherd it through the process of the state and the local zoning and planning process. As some of you may know, this does have to go through a contract zoning change, which we're in the process of doing with the Council. So we've already been through that. We were fortunate enough to receive this initial reading of it, which was well received by the Council and unanimously approved to move forward to come in front of you folks. So that way the public can understand what we've done to date. And then there'll be a couple more steps in the process to get that officially approved. And to a point that we could actually build this project. This a little bit of experience. The term MW is megawatts. So this project is a two- megawatt project. But when you see some of these acronyms, I don't want you all to understand what I do and what these acronyms mean. So when you see the term MW megawatt each megawatt is equivalent to about 100 to 150 homes in power, just to give some perspective on how much power a project like that went down in the right corner there, that's a megawatt. So here's some high level specifics, just to get everybody up to speed on this project. Again, like I said, it's a two-megawatt project, it was originally planned to do something a little bit larger. But as we go across the state of Maine, we have made some changes to the size of these systems. You could go up to five megawatts originally, last summer, the state and the legislators to kind of a pause, developing such a kind of,
Andrew Keller
it's just so much solar development going on in their state, they were concerned about the ratepayers. And they had to make a choice between ratepayers and how these projects would affect electricity versus developers bringing clean energy. Now the statements of its goals within that, as long as you kept your project, at or below two megawatts you could maintain within the current program, you want to go beyond that you have to wait until the subsequent legislature went through the process of deciding what kind of version 2.0 might look like. At the time that would take place. For us. It was a good reflection points. We've completed a lot of survey work; we had a chance to really evaluate what was the impact of the project. So we made some adjustments. This project is turned into a single axis tracker project. So the panels do move, they call the sun east to west, whereas some panels just stay fixed until one direction that allows us to maximize the amount of solar that we can produce in the smaller footprint that we had to work with. So we have two reference points. Typical panels are three and a half or so by seven or six feet in size. Again, the tracker system usually sits anywhere from like four to six feet tall is about the highest point. Again, we have been working closely with CMP in the process to make sure that we follow their procedures and we've received their approval as of recently. We work with Teradyne to work through what the access will look like utilizing the department that we have access to. And obviously working with deadlines on the stormwater and erosion control components. And we just want to address this, again, because of how this kind of dovetails into the aspect of it with the contracts. Again, we had access to these two pieces of property. But we did some evaluation early on to just understand, was it even worth it for us to bring it forward to the public or bring to the Council to see if it was worth it? Is it a good location? For people that know the location, you know, there's a large wetland area, which you'll see on the plan that Larry can go through, we're behind it, we are kind of in the back 40. We have been able to work with DEP, which you'll see in a second here that we've also been fortunate enough to go through and receive their full approvals on the project and how to actually impact the wetlands and habitat concerns. But this was just some analysis that we did you know, what would it take for this to be utilized under the current zoning structure, the weights put up put in place now? Like, what would it take to put the homes back, there will be the cost to meet the town requirements? And it was pretty, pretty cumbersome for a developer to maybe come in here and come to you for like a housing complex back there. So we felt this was a good use, in part of our validation was within that contract zone? You know, that area, I should say, could you because you're allowed to have solar zones, areas already just not allowed to have larger scale solar? Is there enough land? Is there access? What does it all look like, from a buildable perspective, and when we came down in fact in person that we're looking at one nearby down the street there within this zone would be really the only options? So it just kind of made us feel content that we're putting in the back for us, it's not going to have visibility concerns are not going to impact people's value of people's homes. And that's why we went forward with the contract sale process had some success so far.
Andrew Keller
Like I said, it's a two-megawatt project. As I stated, we have approval from CMP. At the local level, they've done all their local group valuation of the project, and we've signed the official permit or approval with the CMP. It's under 20 acres, so was not going to trigger anything with this data at this motor level for sight loss. Let's see the extension of the line, we'll come down Rose Lane, and then find its way down the access road just out to the right. Again, that is all handled at the CMP levels have we met all of their study and engineering requirements, then we'll go into a more formal process with them for their construction planning. And that will kind of handle some of those items, which will take place after this final item. And again, I touched on the few approvals from back in November. here are more larger scale studies being done by CMP. With other projects, how is multiple projects in theory impacting the bigger industry. So once that's complete, which we expect to be sometimes three to four, and then we'll move into that process.
Andrew Keller
Again, just a few other things that we just kind of wanted to go through with the Board. These are things that come up in curiosity or just learning about the solar projects. Sound, you know, is there any sound from these projects? The answer's no. Let me rephrase that. The sound impact is very minimal. The equipment that's out there typically has a decibel rating of 50 or 60 decibels or less. I'm talking about 30 to 40 decibels right now. I have a little meter on my phone I checked out before I came. So sound is a limited issue, especially with the distance of where the array is away from other properties. I did a little quick site evaluation just to get some perspective of distances. You know, where I think the closest is about 600 feet to the closest structure, which would again be through this large wetland area that's going to stay we're not going to touch it. We're not going to cut trees as it has such a nice natural buffer that's already there. There is no smell from the project. No lighting, again, we're not collecting any solar energy during the night, we don't need to have lighting out there. So there's no lighting concerns, our impact to kind of the land again, the way this has been designed with little to no, you know, grading work that needs to be done work on utilizing the natural flow of the land out there other than cutting the trees and removing the stumps. Some of the benefits to the municipal kind of services that we've talked about with the Council was this concept of a payment lieu of tax or a taxing mechanism and states kind of evaluating how they're going to tax the solar projects as submission at the state level, our intention is to work with either provide that same level, or whatever the state requires, in taxable, you know, new revenue for the town. We did, and I didn't state this in there. But we did reach out to the town manager, town minister, and just to see if the town itself had an interest in being a part of this project. I think I don't think the project is just approved or the facts proved or other projects in Maine, that might have already been part of a consortium of towns and schools that came together to get their power from other projects. So would have been nice if it came directly from your project in your town. Unfortunately, we might have been a little late to the game on that conversation. So but we always tried to open up to the whole the school in town, local businesses in here that are welcome to join. I can't speak to a residential folks can sign up yet. We're just kind of working through what that looks like based on the rules. But this program does allow homeowners to save money and electric bills as well. So that could be something more forthcoming. On the on the cover page, what I did set up for the public is a bit of what I have a high-level website for sharing a lot of pictures here from public But there is a website that we set up any solar garden.com/standish community solar. So there's more information consistently where I'm sharing tonight's pictures, and people can really see what this might look like more information. We want to make sure that lastly, on this slide is decommissioning, you know what happened to the project when they're all when they've kind of used out their life. This concerns about that our industry as a whole is taking a pretty strong position in the last few years, mostly due to natural disasters, like Hurricane Maria, for example, and other big storms have done damage to these larger solar projects and other parts of the world. So there's been a big initiative for decommissioning. You know, there's stuff in there, that's not the best stuff in the world. There could be bad stuff in your computer or your cell phone. But there's a way to decommission these things or to take the copper, sometimes some other materials, and recycle it properly in an environment that's meant to be used for this. And that brings it down to the small stuff to be done. One thing that has happened though, and I know that the Town we got some feedback from the Town Attorney. But there is a wording that is within your ordinances, and decommissioning requirements that we have to follow. But there was a state decommissioning order that was just put in place in October of this past year. So we're just trying to get prepared and it sounds like the attorney was good enough to give us an understanding of where. So we just got that ourselves exactly united by a chance to really articulate but a really thorough email that got shared to work kind of reviewing that will look to the board for guidance, or the town attorney and how we manage that. Obviously, we don't want to pay towards any decommissioning plans, but we understand that you guys have an ordinance. And I think that's a little bit of a balancing act. You don't want to pay twice for something that's been covered by one or the other. But I think what we've learned that the state doesn't really say we have to go after the project 20-25 years down the road to be decommissioned.
Scott Hastings-Planner
The Board has this handout in front of them, which they just received tonight and the Town Attorney's comments as well.
Andrew Keller
So one of the things that we do, and from just from experience, getting these prices approved, we do have some guidance on who to talk to about what it would cost to decommission a system and building a system is obviously very expensive. Decommissioning systems aren't just a number that we use, we could have verified that it is usually about $25,000 per megawatt, is what the cost is to be commissioned. That doesn't include any scrap it's just purely a labor analysis that has been done. So we do have some guys from the industry that have been doing this for some time now. It is a lot of details.
Andrew Keller
More here so the environmental impacts of these projects as much as I am, this is the why in this business. I also respect that we usually get here last, we have to talk about the environmental issues. Last is my experience, even though in today's world is becoming more of the top people are discussing. The one good thing I just wanted to share with the board was just some staff. This is from the EPA website. It's like in the size of the system. And it kicks out some equivalencies. So for the board to understand like, yes, we're cutting down some trees out there, trees have a great job of sequestering carbon. But this project has a much, much greater the amount of value it has to the grid, the greater grid is pretty significant. And there's some stats here that you can take a look at the number of trees, COVID trees that you'd have to have that would sequester this much carbon, how many cars off the road, it's pretty significant. You know, so I want to just to share that before that comes out. And that is something that some folks have a concern with. But the positive thing is that this is helping to drive forward, the goal that Maine has as a state to get themselves, you know, to 100% renewables in the future. Because Maine has some of the more impacts you are going to see than other parts of the country, which may not experience when it comes to climate change. So I think that kind of covers it. Again, Larry will walk you through some of the kind of sight review, what we've done as far as reaching out to the state and working with the state to make sure that we've covered a lot of the bases with what our mitigation plans are and can kind of just walk you through the plan. I know I just shared a lot of information. I'm happy to answer questions, I can just pass it off and see if any other questions are covered, then we can stand back up and answer the questions.
Charles Brown
Let Larry make his presentation.
Larry Bastian
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the Board. Larry Bastian, engineer with Teradyne consultants. We're here representing NH Solar. They’re involved with project and are eager to move forward. Our assignment, as you know, is to address the Board and its requirements, the permanent site engineering, and the requirements for this whole facility. So just to give you some orientation of Route 25. The access road that comes in about the middle of the left side of the property and comes into Garden side Estates and onto Rose Lane.
Larry Bastian
We would connect on at that point, at the end of Rose Lane and construct a 16-foot-wide access road and put shoulders on either side. It's basically a residential street or private way and would meet the Town standards. This particular project would be occupying the rear portion of Lots 69 and 61 and the major portion of lot 69. Access comes in, crosses a couple small ranges, then it crosses a major wetland. They are kind of after the road curve through there, and the terminus of the road is right there above that green strip. And that's a hammerhead turn around and access point. And then there will be electrical energy infrastructure to be located there. So there'll be transformer wiring that will all converge there, the CMP power lines will follow in on the road to that point, and that point is accessing the solar array. The solar array is entirely fenced in. So the green boundary that goes around there represents most of the area that's outside of the fence around the entire thing. And the strip of mowed grass outside will get mowed a couple times a year, as needed to keep the brush from encroaching and but that's the extent of any clearing on the property. So of course, everything inside where the array is completely inside the fence, that all that gets cleared and gets restored as grass underneath all the panels and the supports for the panels. The wetland crossings are designed with open bottom culverts, which is a requirement of the Maine DEP Natural Resource Protection Act permit. Essentially, those have already been approved, that permit was received back in the first part of November. And there were not really any adjustments to what we submitted. At that time, we have met with the DEP folks on the site and got some good feedback from them as to the extent of permitting. So tier one NRPA permits and require a DEP stormwater law permit, a construction general permit, and also an NRCA Natural Resource Protection Act permit by rule for one stream crossings. So those permits are in hand. Civil engineering wise, it's a pretty straightforward project and is at a pretty gentle grade coming in there. Maximum land slope within the property of 6 to 8% range. So there won't really be any roadwork per se done inside the fence, panels get installed on the natural grade. And there is a fill section where it crosses the wetlands where we would have to build up a section of the road in there and minimize the extent that we put it in to keep it within DEP criteria. So that's pretty much the overview of the of the site and the access to the property, the right of way coming in as a 60-foot-wide easement access in that will also have power coming in. The proposed plan brings the power underground, essentially, almost to the boundary of Gardenside Estates, and then it will go overhead from that point into the property. That's the proposal as shown on the plans.
Larry Bastian
As you know, the project requires a contract zone, you're familiar with that process. It basically was not an allowed use in the Standish Corner District. So first, Council for the contract zone process and that was reviewed with the Town Council back on December 14, they voted unanimously to move that process forward, which was here to get the framework process moving essentially concurrently. So we prepared the site plan materials and attached their details. We tried to take each piece of the ordinance that we were required to meet and state how we've met it or how it applies to the project. One of the requirements was the sketch plan and some discussions with the fire department before the application was presented so that the developer would contribute towards some ways of emergency and firefighting equipment. And that's compatible, I think it's like an all-terrain vehicle. As you all know, form-based code has specific requirements that require some fairly good-sized contiguous piece of land close and to be able to develop residential housing and residential commercial uses on a piece of property. As you can see how we laid out the solar it's fits in fairly well with the surroundings. . On all sides, really. And on the back corner there, there are additional wetlands with some identified vernal pools. So there's 250 foot setbacks from those. So it would be pretty difficult to get in there and do a residential or commercial development of any kind. And this is something that is economically viable. It’s being buffered from abutting properties, by the large wetlands, between Gardenside Estates. And then even further out for route 35. elementary schools, at least I think around 600 feet away. it’s a good use of the property that Andrew and we stepped back and look at the look at the constraints on the property that I just outlined. And what are the other opportunities, there were the kinds of things that could trip up the project at the state level, for example, permitting was, and that was, you know, that will pass that first assessment to get the developer to the point of wanting to invest in a profitable project. I think, you know, we talked about the site itself, the wetlands are well defined, they're one of those that would point of special significance. More restrictions on that, as far as the state of Maine goes, and it gets very difficult to work around that, and to do extensive development around wetlands.
Larry Bastian
So we'd ask your consideration of the wetlands. And essentially, it's to minimize the environmental impact and cut the number of crossings. We didn't want to be going underground and running them through the coverage curve for a good section of that road. So, you know, as I noted, we have a summary of land use standards in the ordinance in our submittal. I'm not going to go through that item by item. But that's something that at some point, I certainly can't wait to answer any questions on that you have. We believe that the project does conform to the ordinance when it's viewed, assuming that the contract zone goes through. And the construction schedule, as Andrew indicated, we are hopeful to be in there by October of 2022. One of the things I noted in this middle was in terms of costs, Scott asked for more clarity on the breakdown for the access costs, and we did provide that in our follow up information we sent in I think initially We had set around $165,000 for the cost of that, but we didn't give a breakdown with the breakdowns around $172,000 for the engineering access, which is a small number compared to the total cost. Civil engineering wise and permitting, that's pretty much the overview. I would certainly be happy to answer any questions. We are asking for a waiver on putting the utilities all underground, as it would help to eliminate some of the environmental impact.
Charles Brown
Thank you. Scott, do you have any words of wisdom for us?
Scott Hastings-Planner
So as you have a updated price justification behind the performance guarantee required for the site work. It looks reasonable to me, I know the Board doesn't have this, we just got it in before the holidays. We'll make sure you get it for the next meeting. I do want to note that there's been one minor revision to the site plan.
Scott Hastings-Planner
The panels have been moved slightly off the end of the hammerhead turnaround. I think originally, they were straight along with these ones down here and have been pushed out. This was just in case there's any future desire by the owner of the site, to split the front part off, this would mean that the panels are behind the front setback.
Scott Hastings-Planner
As I mentioned in the memo, we are waiting on a written commentary from the Fire Chief. We are trying to get at least a little bit of information today and start looking at it. I was able to talk to the Public Works Director and have revised some of the language slightly into condition number 9, just clarifying responsibility for the applicant as far as the road access goes from the end of the pavement going into the site.
Scott Hastings-Planner
We have added conditions of approval based on the Town Attorney's comments. I have added back in a new condition, number seven, which is basically the same as number six as a performance guarantee meeting the requirements of our ordinance decommissioning the system in years to come. I still have some questions about some things in relation to an easement over Gardenside Estates that are not shown on the plan. Also, an easement for a septic system close by the site.
Charles Brown
Is that shown on the original development plan for the subdivision of the housing project?
Scott Hastings-Planner
There is a septic easement shown on the original Gardenside Estates original plan.
Scott Hastings -Planner
The portion of the right of way is not deeded or otherwise restricted in any way I don't think it's necessarily a requirement of the portion of it that goes between the two properties and questions off the roadway and that goes across the property line was created is a deeded way in existence
Charles Brown
So the people within the development have the rights over that?
Scott Hastings-Planner
The right of way is actually to the rear property owner of 10 Gardenside Estates. So there'll be a new right of way if they continue use of this road as a way to access this rear parcel. I believe the Town also has some rights over it and the option to build it out.
Scott Hastings-Planner
As an additional complication of the application, there is the lack of, better word third party, that is not reflected in our tax map. The Assessor is going to update the tax map. This is 1061 and 1069 F on the tax map. The applicant has submitted deed information on all abutting properties and as far as I understand they do just need to get it all lined up on paper.
Scott Hastings-Planner
A third party, Remarkable Homes Inc, which is owned by Mark Floor, owns the easement.
Charles Brown
He has the right to compare rezoning as far as the easement.
Scott Hastings-Planner
Covered briefly is the contract zone agreement and the Council has the say on that. We will be the holding a public hearing later tonight. In February, when the application is submitted and meets all the requirements of the zoning ordinance in that way and in reflects the proposed and requested change. Any approval of the site plan would not take effect until such time as the zoning is actually formally changed and adopted by the Town Council as a contract zone.
Charles Brown
Members of the Board, do have any questions or comments?
Frank Nappi
Back to the portion of the electrical that's going to be above ground. If you're asking for change, not below ground, about how many feet above ground wire wiring is it going to take approximately?
Charles Brown
We've made it so everyone else has had to go underground. Mr. Struebing said they had talked about this in previous applications.
Frank Nappi
Why can't you follow the Ordinance and go underground like other have? Please educate me on this.
Larry Bastian
The length of the proposed overhead portion, total back to the hammerhead is probably in the range of about 600 feet. Roughly half of that is a little more than half of it is on the southerly southwest side. The proposal has already been submitted to CMP that way. They have approved it this way. I know they prefer overhead for these if they have a choice. But in terms of their infrastructure requirements, that's something I'd have to get back to you on. The first portion of it is pretty open, when we get back to the wetland crossing, it becomes more problematic because we've got a number of culvert crossings that restrict the depth that we can go and that we can punch through with the electrical lines. So could it be done underground? Yes. It would be best. It's much better overhead for that and it is cheaper. But again, it's been approved by CMP that way and that's their preference initially.
Charles Brown
Does this require three phase? Where's the first three phase? On Route 25? So the overheads much more conducive to your installation all the way in? Because you'd have to trench the existing public road to get the three-phase in.
Andrew Walton
And those are the kinds of things I think that went into the CMP decision. But that decision was really kind of in the works with CMP, kind of before we even got on board in terms of how how they would configure the system.
Andrew Walton
So Charlie, how does that work? Where are they going underground and then above ground? Why? Why would that change? Being able to go underground from the highway in?
Charles Brown
You could put it underground all the way. I believe right now it's probably single phase into the residential house, which would be typical for a residential housing project. Three phase requires additional conduits because you're running three separate lead lines. I don't know what you call term on that, but requires three hotlines, the neutral and the collector line.
Larry Bastian
I think, you know, the biggest impact in driving the decision at least from engineering permitting point of view was the wetland crossings and the constraints once we got in and where we had the wetland crossings. I think there are three or four crossings once we get up on that straight section.
Frank Nappi
I just find it a little odd that maybe I'm not understanding, why you would proceed with the permitting and then assuming the project will be approved and assuming even with this permitting which does not meet with the Town ordinance standards and requirements. It seems backwards to me.
Larry Bastian
Well, yeah, I guess the answer to that is that the process with CMP had to get started way back, for us to get it approved.
Andrew Keller
It's a combination of and I fully understand where you're coming from, as far as what terms about what the ordinance was, CMP was our concern. And maybe it was a bad assumption as to how the state would handle the impacts because we knew we had some wetlands. So we have submitted the project to CMP, a long time ago. And then we started the process with the State. Because we want to get that process going, we didn't anticipate it to be approved. Yes, that would be further along with the Town, the contract zone project a little bit longer than I think we all hoped for. So in a perfect world, we're trying to align them together. But now we get the State approval that took into account with a wetland and by having overhead. So that was really why we were why we're here. I think my concern is that we've already received the approval from the state. And what happens if we try to go back? I mean, it's kind of goes into like a black hole?
Larry Bastian
Well, DEP is you know, they have a process for approving changes, we would have to do an amended application, which is not a big deal. Right? It's a time factor. But it's, you know, its DEP.
Andrew Keller
CMP, we'll get into it more and more. The bigger concern for me is the impact on the wetlands and the impact and just dropping a couple of poles in. Also, that process in going underground is quite costly. Do we want to incur that additional cost? Preferred not. And we were trying to bounce back with the State, not knowing how the Planning Board would react early on, and we did discuss it with the Council, kind of hybrid like something was underground, where people would see it as you go into the back to the property and if we went above ground, then we could minimize the impact.
Charles Brown
If you crossed the wetland area underground, the conduit would have to go in the shoulder embedded in concrete. If you get enough cover, so you wouldn't have to embed it.
Larry Bastian
There are sections where we wouldn't have enough cover, we've only got about two and a half feet of covered. It would have to be metal conduit in with concrete for cover.
Charles Brown
Scott, would that require a waiver from the board if we decided to go ahead? And do we have the right to grant that waiver?
Scott Hastings-Planner
You explicitly have the right to approve overhead. Do you feel that the applicant has made a reasonable effort?
Andrew Walton
The other projects that previous Board members have approved. Did they request the same thing or were the distances as long?
Charles Brown
But I believe what we allowed them to do is put, I'll call it a stub pole on the project, one pole near the right of way where they can bring overhead to that, drop it and everything on the site was underground.
Andrew Keller
It typically we do that again, right from where it's close to where the infrastructure is. If there had not been any wetlands, we wouldn't have to be discussing this. We would have been strictly following the ordinances.
Charles Brown
So the existing underground utility, single phase and services, the residential subdivision that would remain in place, you put overhead poles all the way from 25 in.
Larry Bastian
I don't know yet what that requires as to what I was referencing earlier in my presentation.
Andrew Keller
I don't know until we finished the local study that I referred to. And then once that, like regional studies done, hopefully in Q2 of this year, then the more detailed process with CMP will begin. So I don't know what they're going to require us to do. Again, if that is the intent of what we want to maintain, and we have to follow, as we describe it where it's underground versus above ground, that's what we have to work with CMP on. If there was any change with that, I assume we have to come back to the Board and make some adjustments.
Andrew Keller
So yes, I again, I think that the point will be is that we'll have to lean on what CMP requirements are to, we're going to have lay another conduit run next to coming down Rose Lane and then snubs up. I don't remember from my time out there. I've never seen extra conduits. With CMP, they start the evaluation from the last point of interconnection to the three-phase pole? I think it's right in the corner for 25.
Charles Brown
It looks like the single phase is on I'll call it the bottom of that lower section of the road there. So ultimately, if you're on overhead, you have to do it on the other side. So you don't have to deal with those conduits. Because there's probably three of them in there.
Andrew Keller
I don’t know what CMP does with that, maybe three- phase on their review.
Scott Hastings-Planner
But because that's what we asked them to kind of do the review to, and then they know that the array of poles and there is going to be some extension there. So that's just going to have to be handled through their process. We can change that note to something a bit shorter and maybe deal with what require you to do when a preference for using the underground is feasible. And that way, you don't have to come back to the board just to say, Oh, by the way, you'll likely get clarification. You can find out that was a pretty big development. That's a three phase in there anyway.
Andrew Keller
Some of the lead utilities have that level of granularity. Go online and see exactly what the infrastructure is to that point. They know I used to have it online for all to know, but I don't remember if they had that level of granularity of like a single identify as a single phase. But a different time or the last time I asked them to email me a map where they highlighted the present utilities.
Andrew Walton
I have other questions.
Scott Hastings-Planner
The one thing that I had forgotten in my initial review is and one of the things that I want to hear back from the fire chief on the parking situation. Currently, there's no parking proposed in the application, the majority of the people to park will park on the hammerheads. Charlie Browns said that he thinks this doesn't allow a ladder truck to turn around and if there's cars parked, that could be an issue. So I want to make sure as that's kind of a separate public safety issue.
Andrew Keller
And just as the reference for the Board to that intermedia like Larry, the area that's going to be mowed outside the fence lines we have the area that we've been if that was feedback from the firefighters to extend that down to get that extra length, I think we have it. So again, we've just designed to our kind of normal standard protocol, but then knowing that we had that little extra area away from any wetland setbacks. That's the only way.
Andrew Walton
Where was the nearest fire hydrant? Is it at the end of Rose Lane in the turnaround area ? So that would be something that the fire department was also pretty close.
Scott Hastings-Planner
There's a lot of water in here. There should be one in there with the public water. And I would imagine that part of the reason for the requests on the contract zoning agreements were that the units could carry in more water for other access.
Andrew Walton
The second question I had was it connecting to Cohen Road? I don't know, the specifics of why Cohen Road is there, and will they be extending there in the future? And was there an approval or potential growth laid out?
Andrew Walton
So it's part of the master plan. Cohen Road is a potential for interconnectivity. Will it connect to Cohen Road and go across to Route 35 ?
Andrew Walton
They are just reserving a right of way or an easement. And possibly a potential for future development.
Andrew Walton
I was worried that people would take the right on Rose Lane and go down there to take a shortcut to Rt.35. Mr. Keller said they are not building a connection to another road.
Scott Hastings-Planner
And Gardenside Drive was actually built out to the point of longer here because that was the way it was designed.
Charles Brown
Well, they put the septic system in and they won't be able to go over that system.
Andrew Walton
What type of fencing are you using around the project?
Andrew Keller
Typically it’s for it has to meet national standards, which is a seven foot high fence, which is chain link and will be raised at least 7 to 8 inches off the ground, so that any critters in that area can move about freely. In a lot of places, the fence would be dropped down, but we prefer to raise it because of the wildlife moving around and not getting caught inside. It makes for good business having in raised in rural area.
Charles Brown
Does it have to be grounded. Are there any issues with electrical?
Andrew Keller
I think no.
Andrew Keller
I think that's the purpose of so that there's a 15-foot setback requirement from the edge of the panel to the fence, I believe. And the height of the fence in the distance is, I think part of the index kind of my standard, like when we do some of the design work. That's the standard. That I think is the reason why that's the case.
Charles Brown
So the fence grounds all right through the metal poles.
Charles Brown
A question on the private way. Typically, in the past, we've required a separate plan and profile sheet which they have almost entirely done. Is this recordable? Would there be a record that bearings and distances and monumentation shown? I'm assuming we're going to get something like that we would need to I mean, it's not going to take much to take this sheet C 3, and put a signature block on it.
Charles Brown
And that has to be approved by you and Roger and also the Town engineer
Scott Hastings-Planner
I will have Roger take a look at it.
Charles Brown
Three people for those private ways, right. Do we approve that as well? I'm just trying to clarify who proves whether it's Roger approving the construction and inspection.
Charles Brown
But we don't record the site plans but we would record the plan of the private way.We usually get into the private way and how it will be recorded.
Charles Brown
We talked about the bond. We've got the letter from the attorney. The Board members had a chance to look at that it all seems straightforward. I went through that one last question.
Frank Nappi
How many feet do you say it was from? I don't know how many inverted pads you're going to have or transformer pads but what is the distances between that equipment and the nearest property line
Andrew Keller
600 feet. I was measuring to the closest structure to when I measured to the end of the panel .
Frank Nappi
If the noise level your equipment is putting out is 60 to 65 decibels, what do you think it's going be at the property line?
Frank Nappi
So for my hearing that fan, from it right there, that's probably like 20 or 30 decibels and if you went to the other room could you hear that? I guess like that kind of. That's kind of the amount of noise you would hear, which is barely none.
Andrew Keller
If you were standing by the inverter, you would hear it and it would probably be annoying. But the inverters are further enough away and buffered, so you wouldn't hear anything. The inverters only make noise during the day time as we only make power when the sun is out. If you house was right next to it with the window open, you would probably hear some humming.
Andrew Keller
Just as like just to get people to understand like what it means. So again, you're right, it can be annoying if it was like if your house is right next to it right outside the window. But again, that's enough just
Andrew Keller
To be clear, it is a typical noise level for this type of project. The inverters have no sound.
Andrew Keller 1
So the inverters have no noise. Typically, these are what they call three level inverters. So they're just air cooled, their cooling is by ambient air. So the old process of projects earlier in our industry is that one big central transformer and one big central inverter. So there might be one inverter for 200 panels versus one inverter for 5000.
Andrew Keller
So we have a few items that still need to be addressed here.
Charles Brown
Do we need the CMP resolution before we move forward ,it would be nice. To hold this up, I think we could set a condition of approval.
Scott Hastings-Planner
We need something that the Board is comfortable with and we can craft a condition when we get that. We can do a site walk if the Board wants to.
Charles Brown
I guess at this point, I'd like to open it up to the public. If anybody would like to speak please come up to the podium and give us your name.
Helen Plourde
My name is Helen Plourde from 23 Gardenside Drive I'm also President of the homeowner’s association. In the future, I would appreciate it this is another plan such as this. If I was made cognizant of it, I didn't get any written material. I happen to see it in the little Standish paper that comes out weekly. One thing that I would like to know and maybe it was in the information in the paper that was sent is this a utility solar farm or a community? Does that mean in the future that any of the owners of Gardenside be able to subscribe to this? And what do you suppose the fee would be?
Andrew Keller
Typically 10% discount off of their electric bill. The owners of homes in Gardenside will be able to subscribe to this down the road.
Helen Plourde
So I would think it may be more like our I read somewhere that was 20% of the electrical bill with this plan have virtual net metering? I wanted to know what this plan has virtual net metering will be available to the condo owners? Are you renting the land? Or has it been sold to your company? I have read where this is the solar farms as a habitat for bees. A lot of the elderly in Gardenside are allergic to bees. I don't feel that the majority of the owners would like overhead power, but would like underground. You have answered a lot of my questions already and I thank you. Are the panels silicon based?
Andrew Keller
So the project is considered a community solar project, is under the net energy billing program, which is the name that the state puts to the program. It's basically virtual net metering, which was the question what it means is that there is going to be a credit placed onto somebody else's electric bill that's not physically connected to the array. So it's virtual credits. The credits have range from 10 to 25%. across the state. Different developers offer different rates for different reasons. Sometimes their cost of building a project is less so therefore they can share some more savings. The credit that the utility is assigning to the project is changing once a year. So depending on where you get your electricity, from a third party, you might get a rate of eight cents today, you might get rate of 10. Tomorrow, you might get a rate of six, it's a it's a move a little bit of a moving target, I just try to set expectations that are more clear. So we say between 10 and 15% is pretty standard. We are the single lamp. I hear you loud and clear about the habitat and sometimes the bee pollinator strategy is a good one for creating some different new habitats for a project. Some of our projects that's really important. So we're incorporating that it's not necessarily important to this project. So we haven't been identifying it as a pollinator project.
Andrew Keller
And we have to get away from construction. The majority of these panels as you know, there are there are parts and pieces in the panels that have stuff in it. If it was a lot of it in one place, a concern but again, that's back to our issue of finishing the project correctly. There are no liquids, there's no liquid moving into water or anything like that. Again, I think we discussed the overhead versus the underground, I think we're kind of at the discretion. I wish I could speak more specifically if I had more information. But we'll probably follow whatever CMP suggests is the best path. And then again, as we get out into the project, as you get to the end of Rose Lane, we're not clearing anything except for the trees, so the road can go in.. The panels would be taken offsite when they are decommissioned.
Kathryn
I'm concerned about traffic on Rose Lane. Very concerned about that. And I can tell you many people come down there thinking they can go through to the corner. And they have to turn around, they feel bad. So I would hate to see that become up through wave any sort whatsoever. And I was wondering how wide this access is going to be at the end of Rose Lane, the road itself. And right now, we have a lot of trails down in there, that's ATV trails. And a lot of people walk down that area and walk through, we can actually walk right up to the town office here on the trail. And that was something we were told when we bought our units that was going to be developed and it really hasn't happened except the people have done it. And there's a lot of critters out there.
Andrew Keller
So thanks for the question. Let me start with a workup for the critters. And that's part of evaluation that we need to do today is to make sure that we have to identify what type of critters are out there. We are not disturbing either wetland, and we're creating a nice little sliver to get through there. So back and forth about the fence question came up by raising those fences up a little bit allows, there'll be a natural, a new natural flow that will be seen, don't stop them and send them into the road just small enough to move freely. And then there'll be a natural flow of some of the bigger animals that will flow around it.
Andrew Keller
Which kind of goes along with the trails and stuff made up of private property? I can't speak to property rights. But I know that you know, what was promised to you. But if there the natural or unnatural just is not there. Now, as you can see, the green around the array is an area that's going to be activity trail. I can't go on record saying that's a trail you can use to walk on the land, is liability issue with insurance and somebody walking out there and getting hurt I mean, there's, there's a lot that goes down that path that I want to be careful about. But just speaking at high levels, that green area is going to be a area that's going to be a trail. The width of the road is going to be 16 feet wide for any traffic. So the thing about these projects I will share with you is if we were putting in, you know, five houses subdivision in the back, there would be more of a construction issue for years, maybe a year or two The construction of these projects are relatively quick. So the trees would typically be cleared during like we're striving for, you know, end of q4 this year, you would typically want to cut trees. So there'll be some tree work during that time of year. Once that work is done, then we get past the mud season in the spring, we are getting ready for the panel set up and the time it takes for the part of this project that would have more traffic than not in a very short window. So what happens is, that road would be established, and a truck would come in and drop off the panels. We are then going to install the pillars out into the array in position and for people to physically put up on the rack. So it's more organized and more scheduled. It's not like it's an ongoing, they will be installed, and lock them to try to get all the major equipment this year. So again, so they come in and dig a trench, they drop everything out in the field and then all the panels they get set up. After that we are only there a couple of times per year for mowing and some general maintenance.
Andrew Keller
There would be more traffic coming to your property for lawn maintenance at Gardenside Estates. Mowing and maintenance are typically handled two maybe three times a year with a simple type of truck, a tractor trailer. The fencing is actually part of our security. The fence will keep those out that want to and those that don't will go past it.
Charles Brown
If anyone would like to do a site walk, we can do that. I would like to see a determination from CMP as to coming in off Rt.25 and coming the rest of the way in. I think we should also have a plan with an added signature block. Also I would like to see the letter from the Fire Chief.
Scott Hastings-Planner
I have noted that I would like to see about the power lines coming in and also the letter from the Fire Chief. I would like to see if CMP will go by the ordinance and see the signature block on the plan, plus all labeling done.
Charles Brown
Bring it up to whatever the town standards are for the private way.
Andrew Walton
The private way should be marked as such, as I assume so we wouldn't have to put a sign up if it’s a private way.
Derek Wright
Would you have that private way sign on both Rose Lane and Gardenside ?
Scott Hastings-Planner
This would be at the end of roadway where they're driving. Because that's where it becomes a private roadway to the public. Maybe we should talk to public works about a dead-end sign.
Chris Struebing
Charlie, do we need to get a determination on that septic area?
Charles Brown
I guess I'd like to see the septic area put on the plan and find out what the current status of that is, if it's still active. Mr. Hastings said there is a deed for it.
Charles Brown
I guess we got to see it. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with those panels down in the corner. Look like this right up against the old the future road? Yeah, that's probably some distance back from the wetlands to get above seasonal water table. I think it's almost there. The process of this is we have to approve it before the contract zone, or the contract zone has to get approved. And then we approve?
Scott Hastings-Planner
I believe that there's some flexibility there. But it all becomes final at the same time. But from what I understand that the Planning Board is supposed to rule on this first before is fully adopted by Council.
Charles Brown
So then they have an approved plan to adjust.
Scott Hastings-Planner
So they don't have any concerns through this process have been seen. Not going to come up later. And more complicated. They have started that process, which is something that the Council have done and spent a lot of time on this. And we have a public hearing on contract zone portion of that.
Andrew Keller
If we were able to compile this and get some information back from the Fire Chief at the next meeting, would we be able to come back. To me we had all the items taken care of that the Planning Board has requested and seems like we would be in a good place then for the Board to make a decision. And then at the same time we do the public hearing on contracts.
Scott Hastings-Planner
Those are separate issues but this is all the same project or separate processes ,we will have that hearing regardless.
Andrew Keller
That'd be great just from planning multiple trips I'd love to be able to do it that night before we come down and bring it back to the council.
Charles Brown
I think that if we get the material in, it can be put on the next agenda in February
Charles Brown
Three major items need to be addressed...the hammerhead, fire chief's review, and the electrical. those are the three major ones. And once they were addressed, I guess we need a motion to table this until the applicant addresses the three items. And anything that may come out of those reviews, potentially fire chiefs got something needs to be addressed. Mr. Struebing make that motion, and this was seconded by Mrs. Whittemore. All in favor.
Charles Brown
Public Hearing : 112-21 Amendments to Standish Town Code, Chapter 181,Land Use,FBCVD SCD TC Allowed Uses-Auto Repair/Sales
Scott Hastings-Planner
This is a proposed change to zoning ordinance that the ordinance committee has put together and has put before the Town Council part of that process it has to be presented by the Planning Board. So, this is SCD format in the districts around the corner up there around Rt.35 and Oak Hill Road and it is for the town center street frontage type. Within that is the street frontage section right at the intersection by the general store and goes up Oak Hill Road but not all the way to the connector. It would extend up Rt.25 to Village View Road.
Charles Brown
So, this is basically to include those existing service centers.
Scott Hastings-Planner
So we have to come to this board and they are the uses of mechanical repair garage which is a mechanic shop that does not do bodywork and allow you to do so so they get approved and then they want to actually make a business. And that was the business that wants to actually operate a mechanical repair garage and would have to present a site plan to the Planning Board for approval. This is actually being brought up by the owner of the former mechanical repair garage at the intersection of Rt. 25/35.
Frank Nappi
Is this a change proposal that the Town Council has completed?
Scott Hastings-Planner
The language have been drafted and it is in front of the Council for potential change, It needed to be introduced for the first reading and by State law, any change has to be introduced before it is passed.
Charles Brown
Its not specific to that one lot but encompasses that whole area.
Scott Hastings-Planner
Again from Village View down to just past the intersection at 35 and up Oak Hill to just past the hardware store. This property had an approved mechanical repair garage already.
Charles Brown
Anyone from the public would like to speak.
Freeman Abbott
Freeman Abbott. I think Scott answered most of my questions. So this is making it a permitted use. And then you have an applicant notice that comes to the abutters.
Jason Webster
I'm the one that's looking to open the place at the corner. Okay. I don't know the process. So bear with me. I talked to Greg. And that's how it all got started with changing the ordinance. I live here in Standish. So I drive by it every day. And I own two automotive shops in Portland, down in Washington Avenue. And this would just be very convenient. Number one for me, because I live out on River Road. And number two, just for the town in general, there has always been an automotive shop there. I guess it got changed a ways back. And I said, you know, okay, I saw the sign come up, I contacted him and was all set and then found out the ordinances were off. So then I was told that, we can try to change this. So I've just if anybody has any questions, I don't know what the process is, I guess I'm going to have to fill out an application for you guys as well, I really don't know. But bear with me as this is all new for me, as well. So I just want to introduce myself, I am the one my wife and I, my son works for us. We're a family-owned business. So we've been down there 10 years at one location and six of the other. Looking to progress out this way. You have a lot of clientele from Limerick, Limington and Cornish. So it just made sense. If I can answer any questions for you guys, and all I'll be happy to.
Charles Brown
At this point, we're just opening this up to the public so they know that there's a potential zone change coming. Anybody else? I guess then we can officially close the public hearing. And that would be the end of our agenda and meeting.