Planning Board Considers Plans for Shutesbury Road Solar

Report On The Meeting of the Amherst Planning Board, October 4, 2023

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Doug Marshall (Chair), Fred Hartwell, Jesse Mager, Janet McGowan, Johanna Neumann, and Karin Winter. Absent: Bruce Coldham

Staff: Chris Brestrup (Planning Director), Nate Malloy (Senior Planner), and Pam Field Sadler (Assistant)

17 attendees were present on Zoom

PureSky Solar (formerly AMP) has applied for a Special Permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to construct a 41-acre ground mounted solar array on three parcels of wooded land off Shutesbury Road owned by W.D. Cowls. The project will produce 9.34 megawatts of power, enough to power 1,500 homes and include battery storage. Although the ZBA will be the body to grant the special permit, the Planning Board opted to review the proposal and offer its recommendations to the ZBA. The ZBA will continue its hearing on the project at its October 12 meeting. 

Attorney Tom Reidy and PureSky representatives Cory McCandless, Steve Loss, and Andrew Chabot gave a PowerPoint presentation on the project. An earlier plan for a solar array in the area was withdrawn in November, 2021 after the Conservation Commission requested more studies of the soils and watershed. The new project is slightly smaller and has been moved outside of the buffer zone for the surrounding wetlands, so it no longer needs approval from the Conservation Commission. Wetlands administrator Erin Jacques, however, has been involved in evaluating the plans, and PureSky will give a presentation to the Conservation Commission next week. 

McCandless said that wetlands experts have surveyed the site and did not find any change since the Order of Resource Area Delineation (ORAD) was approved in August, 2020. The fire department has requested a turnaround for emergency vehicles near the cement equipment pad where the battery storage will be located. The site will be surrounded by a seven-foot chain link fence elevated six inches off the ground to enable the passage of small animals. The fence will be screened by holly bushes, and the area under the panels will be planted as a pollinator meadow. The plans show that the closest home is 245 feet from the property line of the project and 274 feet from the panels. The equipment pad is over 800 feet from the nearest home and over 100 feet from the nearest trees. The existing logging road will provide vehicle access to the site.

PureSky is still tweaking the design. The phasing of the project was unclear from the presentation. McCandless said that the site would be cleared in 10-acre increments, but Chabot then suggested that all the trees would be cut at once, and the stumps cleared 10 acres at a time to correct any erosion problems. He estimated only 10 to 30 days between the clearing of each segment, with the total project being completed in 18 months after the permit is granted. The project will pay taxes to the town of Amherst.

Members of the public and the Planning Board have expressed concerns about the location of the project in forested land, involving the removal of many trees and possibly disrupting stormwater drainage, as well as animal life and the carbon sequestration afforded by the trees and underlying soil. The PureSky representatives responded that construction of large solar arrays are limited by the need for proximity to transformers, and that Eversource has assured them that the project can connect to the grid. They were vague about the company’s experience with similar projects, but said they would send information to the Planning Board on some projects they have worked on, such as one in West Brookfield. They assured the board that there would be “no impact on drinking water wells in the area.”

Planning Board member Janet McGowan, a member of the Solar Bylaw Working Group, noted that representatives from other towns told her that what was built was often different from the plan that had been approved. She recommended that there be a project monitor to assure that there is no deviation from the plans.

McGowan also called attention to the problems PureSky has encountered on the much-delayed Hickory Ridge solar project, with flood barriers being breached during the heavy rain and  mentioned severe erosion resulting from a solar installation in Williamsburg. Chabot responded by saying that PureSky was not involved in the Williamsburg project and that the Hickory Ridge site is “very different” from Shutesbury Road, being next to the Fort River and surrounded by wetlands. 

Planning Board Chair Doug Marshall terminated the discussion of Hickory Ridge, saying the purpose of this meeting was to evaluate the Shutesbury Road project. He said that he was surprised that this large project would only provide power for 1,500 homes, so that Amherst would need almost 10 times this acreage to supply “the whole town” with renewable electricity. He asked, “Where should we get this energy? Should we tear down single-family homes? If we don’t do it here [at Shutesbury Road], where is the right place?”

McGowan responded that a recent assessment done by the state showed that there is about 15 times the area needed for solar in the already-built environment, and that the state is planning to expand farmland and forested land. This assessment, she added, does not even take into account hydropower, which is expected to come to New England with the approval of the Hydro-Quebec project. She speculated that if the Shutesbury Road array is approved, it might be the last one of its kind approved due to the state regulations soon to go into effect.

In public comment, Lenore Bryck and Renee Moss pointed to the changing science regarding climate change. Bryck cited the importance of forests to ecosystems as well as their ability to sequester large amounts of carbon. Moss said the Shutesbury Road project would cut down the equivalent of 30 football fields of forest. “It is the wrong project in the wrong place and time,” she said. 

Michael Lipinski stated that there have been serious problems with other PureSky projects. He said that in Duanesburg, New York  improperly stored solar panels were ruined in a heavy snowstorm in December of 2022, and many of them remain at the site. He added that a battery storage unit identical to the one proposed for this project burst into flames in Warwick, New York (and was removed). The report on why the fire occurred has not been issued. He asked, “Are these the people you want to trust?”

The Planning Board did not come to agreement on a recommendation to give to the ZBA regarding the Shutesbury Road Solar project. Planning Director Chris Brestrup said that she and Assistant Pam Field-Sadler will summarize the comments from this meeting and forward them to the ZBA. 

The meeting adjourned at 9:02 p.m. The Planning Board next meets on October 18. The ZBA will meet on October 12.