Sick. Scrawny. Inadequate. These are some of the adjectives that members of the Rochester Planning Board used on May 10 to describe “the trees with teeny tiny sticks on top” selected by Clean Energy Collective and its contractor, Gehrlicher Solar, for the screening around the solar farm project off Perry’s Lane.
Solar developer Jay Myrto and contractor Peter Fickeisen argued that the trees were in full compliance with the landscaping plan the board approved, and the board did not disagree. However, looking at photographs of the site, the trees are ineffective at screening the panels from anyone viewing the site from Mary’s Pond.
Johnson said the trees looked no higher than 4 feet tall from far away, and the plan called for 6-footers to screen the site and render the solar farm project invisible from the outside.
“It’s full for the first four feet, but after that it’s just a spike,” said Johnson. “I can see space in between there. We are not to see it from Day One. That’s going to take five years to fill in.”
Although the board approved 6-foot trees, Johnson said, these trees just aren’t going to do.
According to Fickeisen, the trees actually appear to be 8 feet tall if you consider the 2-foot berm they sit atop, but Johnson said it still does not meet the criteria for screening.
“Is there a bird watching society that’s causing a greater problem?” said Fickeisen – a private joke, he said, which nobody got.
Johnson recommended staggering the trees and adding an additional row in front, and board member Ben Bailey took offense to Fickeisen’s comment suggesting the board might be acting unreasonable.
“If you think we’re being unreasonable then you’re at odds with everything that this board has been about,” said Bailey. “Nobody envisioned a tree like that,” he said, balancing his pen on the lid of his coffee cup, “this little stick waving in the wind that doesn’t provide much screening.”
“We just don’t want to see it,” said Planning Board member Chris Silveira.
Myrto asked for more time to consider the board’s request to revisit the plan and resubmit a new one with different or more trees planned, since he had only been notified of the problem that afternoon.
“We need to have a plan so that we can all weigh in on it so that you’re not doing it again and again,” said Johnson. “You gotta at least tighten the gaps in between.” Different plant material or a different size, he said, anything to fix it. “But it has to be done right away.”
The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board is scheduled for May 24 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.
By Jean Perry