Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday approved a modification of the Site Plan Review and Special Permit for a large-scale solar photovoltaic array at Rochester Memorial School which will allow construction to happen during the school year.
The plan in question is to construct a canopy-mounted 250KW AC solar array system over a portion of the school’s rear paved parking lot. Planning Board Chair Arnold Johnson said Tuesday one of the conditions of the permit was that construction was to take place over the summer vacation when no children would be around and the space would not be so busy. Circumstances around that plan have changed, he said. Now the contractor, Solect Energy Development, Hopkinton, is looking to start construction in September and finish work by the end of December.
Johnson began discussion by noting board members have visited the site and reviewed details such as the necessary performance bond for the work. He then asked if the work would impede student drop-off in the morning and pick-up in the afternoon and faculty parking.
RMS Principal Heidi Letendre answered that parents will be asked to extend their “que” line for drop-off and pick-up further around the front of the school and the time students will be allowed in the school will be altered. Solect consultant Clint Shuckel assured the board the contractor will not do heavy work between seven and eight a.m. (when students arrive for the school day) or 2:30-3:30 (student pick-up time), and sub-contractors are being instructed to not make deliveries during those times. He said work hours will be 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday to Friday, and no Saturday work hours.
Town Planner Michaela Shoemaker said Police Michael Assad has indicated concern over unauthorized personnel entering the school building. ORR District Facilities Manager Gene Jones responded that all personnel working in the school area have been CORI-checked (Criminal Offender Record Information).
Discussion ended with a decision that this was a minor rather than a major permit change. A major change would have required a public hearing. The approval vote was 4-1, with member Marc Rousseau voting against.
The board’s next motions were continuations. The panel continued to its next meeting the Definitive Subdivision application hearing on turning an 8.67-acre parcel at 19 County Road into three lots after a lengthy discussion over the expensive road bond the petitioners are being asked to post.
The plan here is to retain the existing house lot and create two new lots for additional four-bedroom residential housing. Patrick Mulvahill, representing the petitioners Robert and Christine Murphy, said he had questions for the town’s consulting engineer, Ken Motta, in response to the lengthy peer review letter with permit requirements that Motta recently issued. He wanted to know if covenant language in the permit waivers could address the high cost of the road performance bond. “This is money the Murphys did not foresee having to pay,” Milvahill said.
Johnson explained a road performance bond protects the town and future residents of the homes should the contractor go belly-up before finishing the road. Consulting engineer Robert Espisito, appearing on Zoom, requested the continuance after concluding he will first speak with Motta on the details of the peer review and the road bond issue.
The board also continued to its next meeting the Special Permit and Site Plan Review hearing for the proposal from Logging Swamp Solar dba ReWild Renewables to install a ground-mounted, large scale solar panel array with associated site work on 49 acres in the area of 600 Snipatuit Road.
The board then continued to the same date its other large-scale solar project hearing: the Site Plan Review application for the construction of a floating and ground-mounted solar array with associated battery energy storage system at 53 Dexter Lane.
In other action, Johnson announced that long-time member Ben Bailey has resigned. But Bailey has agreed to stay on until the conclusion of the Logging Swamp Solar project, he said. The board needs a supermajority of its members to be present to legally vote on such a permit and Bailey has been involved in the hearings since the beginning. The board then elevated member Michael Murphy to Board Clerk to replace Bailey in that role and appointed Matt Bache as Assistant Clerk.
The board tentatively set September 3 as the date for its site visit of the Dexter Lane floating solar array project.
The Rochester Planning Board’s next meeting will be Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Planning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco