Council Narrowly Defeats Temporary Moratorium On Large Scale Solar Arrays

Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Town Council, February 28, 2022

This meeting was conducted over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here.

Highlights

• Temporary solar moratorium defeated
• New flood plain maps presented.
• Revised water regulations discussed.
• Councilor liaisons to town committees appointed

Present
Lynn Griesemer (President, District 2), Ellisha Walker, Andy Steinberg, and Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large), Cathy Schoen and Michele Miller (District 1), Pat DeAngelis (District 2), Dorothy Pam and Jennifer Taub (District 3), Pam Rooney and Anika Lopes (District 4), Shalini Bahl-Milne and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5). 

Staff: Paul Bockelman, Town Manager and Athena O’Keeffe, Clerk of the Council

Griesemer, Devlin Gauthier, Pam, Rooney, Hanneke, and Schoen were present in Town Hall. The others participated remotely.

Public Comments Support Temporary Solar Moratorium
Council President Lynn Griesemer (District 2) limited public comment to the 14 attendees who raised their hands at the beginning of the meeting. Others who volunteered later, were encouraged to submit their comments on the council website. Ten of the 14 comments were in support of Article 16, the proposed temporary moratorium for large-scale ground mounted solar installations sponsored by Griesemer, Pat DeAngelis (District 2), and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5). The proposed 18-month moratorium aims to allow time for the town to develop a solar bylaw.

Corinne Demas, Henry Lappen, Lenore Bryck, Bart Bourecius, Michael Lipinsky, and Phil Rich said that forested land was the worst place for solar installations. Kathleen Bridgewater noted that “No Trespassing” signs had already been posted on the W.D. Cowls land for the planned 45-acre solar development.

Devlin Selman resides next to a 30-acre solar array in Conway which she said has been “one disaster after another” as the company operating it has taken advantage of the town’s weak bylaw. There has been noise and air pollution from a diesel generator running 24 hours a day, and the array is near wetlands. She added that the ambient air temperature is higher near the installation. She encouraged Amherst to take the time to develop a strong bylaw.

Moratorium Fails To Garner Support Of Two-Thirds Of The Council
The most vocal opponents to the moratorium were two members of the Community Resources Committee (CRC) who had insisted on modifications to the original proposal before voting for the measure at the January 27. Both Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) and Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5) cited the urgent need to move toward 100% renewable energy that would be delayed by this 18-month moratorium. Hanneke referred to the resolution passed unanimously by Town Meeting in November 2017 to not delay or impede the development of renewable energy, and Bahl-Milne referred to the opposition to the moratorium by members of the Energy Transition Institute at UMASS. Bahl-Milne also denied any conflict of interest in the matter due to her friendship and past business partnership with Cinda Jones of W,D, Cowls, owner of the forested land for a proposed 45-acre solar array, and said she had filed an acknowledgment of this relationship with the state.

Michele Miller (District 1) and Anika Lopes (District4) also referred to the “global calamity” of climate change as a reason for opposing the moratorium. Andy Steinberg (at large) said he has “an inherent dislike of moratoriums unless there is a real emergency at hand,” and he doesn’t see an emergency here, since there are boards and policies in place to evaluate solar projects. However, Pam Rooney (District 4) noted that boards change all the time, so the town needs effective policies.

Jennifer Taub (District 3) noted that home and business solar installations would not be affected by the moratorium, so the town could still make progress toward carbon free energy. Dorothy Pam (District 3) said that she heard Head Planner Christine Brestrup lay out many questions regarding ground mounted solar arrays at a Planning Board meeting for which the Planning Department did not know the answers. She advocated the brief delay of the moratorium to gather this information and develop a consistent policy.

DeAngelis stated that the Massachusetts roadmap to decarbonization encourages preservation of forests for carbon removal. She said the proposed moratorium would give the town time to find a balance between developing solar power and the need to preserve forests and farmland. Ellisha Walker (at large) warned against development of large solar projects without an effective bylaw. She said, “We need to do it right the first time, because if we make a mistake, it will be our most vulnerable population that suffers the most.”

With Hanneke, Bahl-Milne, Lopes, Steinberg, and Miller voting against the moratorium, it failed to garner the two-thirds vote necessary.

After the measure was defeated, Devlin Gauthier thanked all who had participated in the debate and noted that there is a consensus that Amherst needs a strong solar bylaw. She proposed a motion that the town manager create a solar siting working group on or before March 7, 2022 leading to the creation of a draft solar bylaw by March 6, 2023.

Hanneke objected to the motion saying it could be a violation of the Open Meeting Law (OML) because it was not posted on the agenda and that the president was informed 48 hours prior to the meeting, so it was not unanticipated. Griesemer denied that she was informed of the motion prior to the meeting, and Cathy Schoen (District 1) said the defeat of the moratorium made the motion relevant at this time.

Griesemer moved to postpone the vote on the creation of the working group until the next council meeting on March 7, but the vote to postpone was 5-5-3, so it was defeated. Lopes, Rooney, Steinberg, Taub and Griesemer voted yes, and Miller, Hanneke, and Pam abstained. With Miller still raising the possible OML violation, Council Clerk Athena O’Keeffe was consulted. She said that she had considered the motion to be a continuation of the solar bylaw discussion, but that any one councilor can postpone a vote for one meeting. This is what Griesemer did, so the working group will be discussed at the March 7 meeting.

Public Comment Proposing School Wellness Program, Support of Ukraine, And Changing The Name Of The Town
In addition to the numerous comments on the solar moratorium, Lauren Mills encouraged an expanded wellness and nutrition program in the schools. She noted that all the colleges in town have farms and that the town received a federal grant for a farm to school program in 2018. She also spoke in favor of gardening and culinary programs at the schools.

Meg Gage asked the town to consider lighting Town Hall in blue and gold to support Ukraine. And Vice O’Connor spoke in favor of a referendum to change the name of Amherst from that of an 18^th century British general to a name that more accurately depicts the town, such as Harriet (For Harriet Tubman) or Sumner for Charles Sumner, an anti-slavery Senator from Massachusetts).

New Flood Plain Maps Developed
Amherst participates in the FEMA flood insurance program and, as such, must have valid maps of areas prone to flooding. The last flood plain maps were developed in 1983, and since that time new methods for evaluating areas prone to flooding have been developed. The town has been working on updating the maps for the past three years. The proposed maps have been available to the public, and all abutters were notified of the public hearing. Only one appeal was filed during the first of three appeal periods.

Jennifer Moss of AECOM Engineering presented the results of the survey of bridges and culverts and the 11 mile area surrounding Amherst’s four streams. The information was submitted to FEMA with a Letter of Final Determination expected by the end of April, 2022. In the meantime, the town needs to examine its bylaws and adopt a new bylaw by the six-month deadline (October, 2022) to avoid suspension from National Flood Insurance Program.

Senior Planner Nate Malloy said the revised zoning bylaw will create an overlay zone for flood plains. He added that most of new bylaw is mandated by the FEMA flood program. He plans to present the proposed changes to the Planning Board in mid-March before presenting it to the Town Council.

Taub noted that the Tan Brook is not included in the flood maps. Moss replied that the study does not include streams with less than a mile of drainage area. Brestrup added that Amherst is not directly impacted by flooding on the Connecticut and Deerfield Rivers, but that AECOM is currently studying the Connecticut River watershed.

DPW Developing Water Regulations
DPW superintendent Guilford Mooringn and Assistant Superintendent Amy Rusiecki have been working on formalizing water regulations. They will update the sewer regulations at a later time. The previous regulations were developed in the 1970s, but the written documents cannot be located. Since that time there are new regulations from the state and federal governments with regard to lead and copper pipes, cross connection control to prevent contamination of the water supply, and drought management. New technology allows radio water metering to allow reading of water meters without the need to enter homes and moisture detectors on irrigation devices so sprinklers do not operate when it is raining. The town is working on replacing all meters with the radio enabled ones, so that residents do not get surprise bills if their meters are not able to be read for several months and the estimated bill is less than their actual usage

The proposed new regulations can be read here. Councilors were concerned about the requirement to fix any leaks within seven days, but Mooring said the idea is to prevent residents from ignoring a water leak and the department will work with them to fix leaks expeditiously. Rusiecki said that the town must account for 90% of its water usage or it will receive a reprimand from the state.

Questions were also raised about who is responsible for repairs. David Fetterman and his 94- year-old mother Elsie said that they received a bill for $18,000 to fix a leak that occurred in the street outside of Elsie’s house. They felt that property owners should only be responsible for what occurs on their property. Mooring said that Ms. Fetterman was not only one who had to repair leak in the street in the past 18 months, that there were about 25 others with similar problems. He said that Springfield covers all repairs in water lines up to the house, and Northampton adopted a similar policy after a complaint; but other towns mandate that the homeowner is responsible for any problem from the water main to the residence. He said there would be financial ramifications if the town decided to cover those repairs. Pam noted that some homeowners’ insurance policies cover water line leaks.

This policy covers only those residents who are connected to the municipal water supply, not those with private wells. The draft policy was referred to the Town Services and Outreach (TSO) Committee which will hold a public hearing. The Finance Committee and Governance, Organization and Legislation Committee (GOL) will also review it with a report back to the Council by April 2022.

Councilor Liaisons To Town Committees Appointed
The Government, Organization and Legislation Committee (GOL) reviewed the policy for liaisons to various town committees and recommended that liaisons to the Planning Board and Affordable Housing Trust be from the CRC and those to the Disability Access Advisory Committee and Transportation Advisory Committee be from TSO. GOL also recommended liaisons to the Board of Health, Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, and Energy and Climate Action Committee. GOL did not feel the Community Preservation Act Committee, Council on Aging and Board of Licensing Commission needed council liaisons based on impact in previous years.

The following liaisons were selected by a unanimous vote:

Disability Access Advisory Committee: Pat DeAngelis

Energy and Climate Action Committee: Ana Devlin Gauthier

Community Safety and Social Justice Committee: Dorothy Pam and DeAngelis

Planning Board: Pam Rooney

Transportation Advisory Committee: Andy Steinberg

Board of Health: Michele Miller

Town Manager Report
The entire report of the Town Manager is included in this issue of the Indy. Bockelman reported that the Board of Health will reevaluate the mask mandate for indoor spaces at its March 10 meeting. He said that he will be scheduling a Community Chat on the Jones Library Building Project, and that there was a fair amount of interest from contractors for the addition to the North Amherst Library. The bids are due in a couple of weeks.

He added that the town and police department have worked with UMass and are prepared for the college “festivities” this weekend. He hopes the projected cold, overcast weather will limit the size of some of the gatherings.

With regard to the redistricting, Bockelman said all residents will receive notice of their new precincts and voting places once the plans are finalized by the state and validated by the town clerk. The Town Council will need to approve the polling sites.

Interviewing is scheduled for the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee and the Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Bockelman is close to making a recommendation for the director of the community responders (CRESS) program, and the town is readying a space at the Bangs Center for CRESS. The staff has been working with local organizations to provide mental health services in conjunction with the CRESS program.

Since the departure of Senior Center Director Mary Beth Ogulewicz, the town has not been able to make progress on finding a permanent homeless shelter, but Craig’s Doors is operating temporary shelters at the Immanuel Lutheran Church, and the University Motor Lodge, with possible overflow at the Unitarian Universalist Church. There is a day shelter operating at the VFW. The town plans to use American Rescue Plan funds for a permanent shelter.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:56 p.m.