Standish Planning Board Meeting Minutes
Standish Planning Board
Meeting Minutes
February 23, 2022
The Standish Planning Board meeting was called to order by Chairman Charles Brown at 6:00pm. Present were Andrew Walton, Jolene Whittemore, Deb Boxer, Town Planner Scott Hastings and Jackie Dyer, Admin. to Town Planner and Planning Board. Absent were Chris Struebing, Derek Wright, and Frank Nappi.
Open Meeting
a. Call to order by Chairman Brown
b. Opening Statement from Planning Board Chairman
c. Declaration of a Quorum- 4
Approval of Meeting Minutes from January 03, 2022
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion seconded by Mr. Walton to approve the meeting minutes. Three for with Mrs. Boxer abstaining.
Old Business
- Orchard Road Solar-Rose Lane, Map 10/Lot 69F & Lot 61-Site Plan Application for a solar farm
Larry Bastion from Terradyn Consultants was present as well as the applicant, Andrew Keller from Orchard Road Solar. Mr. Bastion gave a brief overview of the project and the changes that have been made since the last meeting was held.
He said there are wetlands thru the site, most of them are forested. He said they have the DEP permits as well as the Army Corp. of Engineers and CMP. He said if this is approved, they are also seeking a contract zone from the Town Council. He said the access is from Rt. 25 to Rose Lane and that’s where the power will come in from, some above ground with poles and underground into the site. He said they reached out to CMP, and this is existing 3 phase power from Rt.25., which will entail some overhead service. He said CMP will make the decision where the poles will go when they do their field analysis. He said they are trying to avoid wetlands as much as possible. He said they added what was asked of them to the plan. They reached out to the snowmobile club about the trail and have rerouted that as well.
Mr. Hastings said he has the Fire Chief’s report and is all set with that and the revisions to the plan. Mr. Bastian said they have their EPA permit as well. Mrs. Boxer asked about the trail the neighbors use on the property and Mr. Bastian that it’s the snowmobile trail and that will be maintained by the club. Mrs. Boxer asked about the fence that will be surrounding the project and will the fence be raised. Both Mr. Bastian and Mr. Keller told her the fence will be raised to allow for the smaller animals to move around and have free access. He said the buffered woods are at least 400-600 feet away.
He said also that just one plan sheet will be recorded, not several. He said the title block on the plan needs the owner of record on it for the Registry of Deeds. The land surveyors seal needs to be added to the plan as well. Mr. Bastian said they will take care of these items. Mr. Brown asked about monumentation as there is none on the plan. He said they usually set granite markers on all four corners, and something should be set. The Board agreed that rebars with caps on them be placed and if this ever turns into a subdivision, they will need to place granite markers. Mr. Bastian said that would not be a problem and will put them on the plan.
Mr. Walton asked about the overhead/underground service. Mr. Brown said in the memo there was an email from CMP about their recommendation for overhead of phase 3 power from the street to the private way. K&A Independent Consultants for CMP said that CMP currently runs 3 phase overhead as a choice. Mr. Walton said that our ordinance currently says underground. Mr. Hastings said that underground through the wetlands would not make sense as it would cause erosion and sedimentation around the wetlands. The Board said they are comfortable with the power being along the right of way, Rose Lane.
Helen from 23 Gardenside Estates spoke and said she still had a few questions. She asked the Board if the Town has a limit or solar farms, how many waivers does the Board, permit a year, with the overhead power lines, will they lose their power more often. She asked Mr. Brown if the Town be responsible to plow the access road or would it be up to Gardenside Estates. She said some people in Gardenside Estates have asked if their taxes go down. She said she wants to make sure the residents of Gardenside want to make sure they get what they pay for. She said they all appreciate the fire, EMS and rescue.
Mr. Brown said he is not aware of any limit on solar farms in Town. He said its not unusual for the Board to grant waivers on a project. The overhead power for the project will be a different line than Gardenside. Mr. Keller said that Gardenside will have a totally different power line than the project. He said they are responsible to plow their own road. Mr. Keller said they will pay taxes just like everyone else does.
Eric Blanken from 3 Orchard Road spoke. He said he was on Gov. Lepage’s wind energy commission and this overlaps with solar. He spoke about wind energy and a lot of the problems with them and the corporations that lease land for them. He said they usually fail after 10 years, and the projects are abandoned. He gave Mr. Brown an article about this. He said that the company that is doing this needs to be held liable in case the project fails and its very expensive to decommission them. He asked about how many megawatts are from this solar farm?
Andrew Keller said some of these items Mr. Blanken mentioned have already been discussed with the Board. He said there is not a lot of comparison you can make between wind farms and solar farms. Andrew said it costs about $ 25,000.00 to decommission a project. He said they are required to submit for any decommissioning to the State and money is set aside especially for this. He told Mr. Blanken they are a 2-megawatt project that meets the State standards. Andrew said he has seen inverters fail and the panels have a 25-year warranty. Mr. Hastings said there will be a bond held by the Town for decommissioning and the State has a requirement.
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion to find the application complete as presented with all conditions referenced in the memo and one added condition with an amended Sheet C3.1. Mr. Walton seconded the motion. All in favor.
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion to approve the application, and this was seconded by Mrs. Boxer. All in favor.
New Business:
- Katrina’s Properties, LLC, 71 Phinney Road, Map 21, Lot 32-Shoreland Zoning Application
Katrina DiBiase was present with her partner Andrew. She said she bought the property and had no idea what the extent of the work needed was. Andrew said the back retaining wall was collapsing and bowing out, pushing the cottage forward. Mrs. Boxer asked about the frost wall and Andrew said its 8 feet high. Katrina said she went through a lot of contractors that came and said it’s a struggle to find someone.
Andrew said they talked to a lot of contractors that had never done anything to this extent. He said they want to stabilize the cottage and get the property back to where it was. Mr. Brown asked about the sides of the foundation and Andrew said everything was set up on wood and blocks. He said those were in pretty good shape compared to the wall. Katrina said that there was a deck on the front that was rotted, and she fell through. Andrew said the foundation companies are at least three years out, so they attempted it themselves.
Mr. Hastings said the Board has a sketch that has the decks on it that were existing when Katrina bought the property. Andrew said the deck on the front was about 5 feet wide, just enough to get to the front door. She said you can see where the deck was. Mr. Hastings said that their contractor came out and started but was given a stop work order by the Code Enforcement Officer, as this needed to come to the Planning Board. He said there is not an erosion and control plan with the application.
Katrina said the silk fence and mulch for erosion has been put in as soon as they found out they were in violation of Shoreland Zoning. Mr. Brown said that there is a letter from an abutter with eight comments. Roger Mosley said he is the abutter and he had concerns. He said all of the material dug out is on his property and their machinery has also. He said the trees on his property have been damaged, the pins on his and the abutting property on the other side have been damaged and need to be reset. The cement blocks are sitting on his property, and he wants to know their plan for cleaning up his property back to where it was. He said he has had no communication with the owner at all. Roger said he has some very real concerns and feels they are not concerned for his property at all. He said he would like to see the approval, if it happens, saying that his property will be taken care of and put back to what it was.
Roger said their septic, or where they think it is, has been staked out and this is on his property and not close to where their septic is. He showed the Board where his property lines are. He also said they have a 10-foot easement over his property. Katrina DiBiase said she feels very badly and was not familiar with the easement, nor was she aware she was on Roger’s property. She said she intends to make everything right and return his property to where it was. Andrew said that they want to make sure they take care of everything. Mr. Hastings suggested that Ms. DiBiase needs to share contact information with Mr. Mosley and address things.
Mrs. Boxer asked Mr. Mosley if he feels that is a solution? He said he is disappointed that as an abutter they never came to see him or contact him. Mrs. Boxer asked if a condition needs to be made about putting Mr. Mosley’s property back to where it was. Ms. DiBiase said that she wants to put it back and better than it was. Mr. Hastings said that all materials on Roger’s property needs to be removed and the pins either replaced or reset.
Mr. Brown asked about modifying condition 6 to address Mr. Mosley’s concerns and requests. Mrs. Boxer agreed. The site plan also needs to be modified to show where the decks are going when replaced as well. Mr. Brown said they are just going to jack the camp up, set a new foundation and put the camp on it. Mr. Brown said the applicant has submitted everything. The grading of the properties will go back to what they were originally. Mr. Mosley asked if they wanted to raise the foundation another 4 feet because of water, could they. Mr. Hastings said they would have to submit more information for that as there is a maximum height. Mr. Mosley said he was just curious as there are some water issues on the property. A written narrative will need to be submitted to the Code Enforcement Officer describing what they are going to do as far as the abutting properties are concerned.
Mrs. Boxer made a motion to find the application complete, seconded by Mr. Walton, with all updates on site plan, including decks being replaced and an erosion and sedimentation plan and conditions from the memo. All in favor.
Mrs. Whittemore made a motion to approve the application seconded by Mrs. Boxer. All in favor.
Public Hearing:
- Amendments to Standish Town Code, Chapter 181, Land Use, Regarding Orchard Road Solar Contract Zone
Mr. Hastings said this was covered in the site plan application process. A contract zone would be an overlay for the three properties involved and that solar is allowed in the zone. It would be served by a private way. He said it would be providing us with equipment mounted for the fire departments EMS services and calls. This will go back to the Town Council in March. There were no public comments.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm