BERNARDSTON — When the Planning Board opened its public hearing on the proposed solar farm for 32 Fox Hill Road on Thursday, most of the discussion at the meeting concerned the potential impact that the solar panels could have on Bernardston’s flooding problem.
A few attendees, however, raised concerns about how the 23.8-acre solar farm might change the aesthetics of Bernardston.
“Those are the two big things with the project; the visual and the stormwater,” said Planning Board Chairwoman Chris Wysk.
Neighbors with abutting property will be asked to contribute to the special permitting part of the process, which the Planning Board will begin after completing the site plan review.
Specifically, Wysk said, there are several residents whose properties overlook the meadow where the solar farm is planned to go.
One of those is Rawn Fulton, who is on the Planning Board but had to recuse himself from the hearing because his home on Fox Hill Road overlooks the meadow.
“The viewscape that we have here across the southern meadow is exquisite,” Fulton said. “I’m not thrilled at the prospect of 17,000 solar panels sitting there.”
He does see the importance of the project though. Since the 1960s, Fulton said, he has advocated for a more environmentally sustainable way of life. “As someone who espouses that thinking, it’s very hard for me to say, ‘Go ahead, but don’t do it here,’” he said. “That’s my two minds.”
The special permitting process will also include broader discussions of how the solar farm could affect “the whole character of the town,” Wysk said.
Land Tech, the consultant company designing the solar farm, was asked to provide renderings of what the solar farm will look like from various vantage points. Those images will be available for the special permitting process, said Land Tech Senior Project Engineer Matt Waterman. Public comment on the appearance of the solar farm will be part of the Planning Board’s considerations in that phase, Wysk said.
“It may take several meetings,” Wysk said. “We have time to really look at this. We’re not going to hurry.”
For the time being, the Planning Board’s site plan review generally focuses on whether the site is suitable for the project. So far, the focus has primarily been on how the solar panels will affect the flow of water into central Bernardston during rainstorms.
Planning Board member John Lepore raised concerns about how such a large swath of solar panels would affect the “permeability” of the ground underneath.
In the guidelines provided by the Department of Environmental Protection, solar panels are not considered an impervious surface, Waterman said. Yet such a large array of solar panels would nonetheless affect waterflow, Lepore said.
“When water drips off a panel, it’s going to pool and sheet. When it sheets, my concern is how quickly the water in a severe event will run off from that landscape,” Lepore said.
Waterman said that having talked to designers after the Thursday meeting, he is confident that Lepore’s concerns can be addressed with strategically placed grass swales and ditches.