With a roomful of abutters looking on and full of questions, the Rochester Conservation Commission Tuesday opened a Notice of Intent hearing on a plan to place a ground-mounted solar array system within a 100-foot wetlands buffer zone.
Project technical consultant Stacy Minhane began the hearing by reporting this will be a 2.3-megawatt solar installation where wetlands will surround the fenced-in perimeter of the 6.63 acre’s upland.
Neighbors in attendance were quick with a variety of questions. How far from the fence is the property line? one resident asked. Minhane said 220 feet, adding that trees will be cleared to 100 feet of the property line. That abutter asked whether the project would encroach on his well.
Michael Kennefick, an attorney representing abutter Sarah Preston, said her property is closest to the project and the developer has an obligation to demonstrate there is no alternative to the current design for the plan to work. Preston complained that the project’s current design has drifted closer to the subdivision and her property than the original design. “There has to be another way to develop that is less intrusive that we can support,” Attorney Kennefick said.
Abutter Rodney Fielding said he and his mother operate an organic farm, spring-fed. He worried aloud that water runoff from the project would harm his operation. Minhane said the project needs more room to the south. So, it would be challenging to re-design. She pointed to two water runoff basins on site for catch that drainage.
Project representative Sarah Stern promised more details the next time they meet with the commission. She will be meeting first with the Planning Board on June 9. The commission continued this hearing to June 19.
In other action, the commission issued a Certificate of Compliance for the Wolf Island Road Pump Station project.
The board continued to June 2 the Notice of Intent to construct a four-bedroom single-family home with septic system on Robinson Road across from Lloyd’s Market.
The board continued to June 2 its two Notices of Intent hearings for High Street Solar 1 and 2 at 0 High St.
The next Rochester Conservation Commission meeting will be June 2 at 7:00 pm, in Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Conservation Commission
By Michael J. DeCicco