DEERFIELD — The Planning Board approved a revised bylaw limiting by-right, ground-mounted solar arrays to 660 square feet Monday night. The bylaw change will be brought to voters at October’s Special Town Meeting.
The original motion to approve the revision was shot down, but further discussion among the Planning Board, Selectboard and residents led to it passing in a 6-1 vote.
The bylaw, which focused on medium-scale and large-scale solar arrays, was originally passed by voters at Annual Town Meeting in June, but the Planning Board is revisiting it after concerns about a lack of specificity when it came to small-scale arrays. The original bylaw allowed ground-mounted solar arrays up to 10,000 square feet.
Chris Curtis, a Planning Board consultant, said state regulations limit by-right arrays to 10 kilowatts, which translates to about a 660-square-foot project. He noted matching town laws with state laws makes the most sense.
“A typical residential system today can be built up to 660 square feet without getting (Department of Public Utilities) approval,” he said. “Correlating that to our bylaw seemed like it was logical and sensible.”
Under the bylaw, anyone seeking to build a solar array larger than 660 square feet would need to seek a site plan review from the Planning Board, along with any other state requirements.
“If someone wants to build a larger residential system than that, it’s still possible under both the DPU regulations and under this proposed bylaw,” Curtis said. “The process would be you would have to go forward as if you were a medium-scale residential system. … That would require site plan review, no special permit.”
The original version of this proposal limited solar arrays to 2,100 square feet, but Curtis recommended following the state regulations. Planning Board members initially rejected the revision because they said a drop from 2,100 square feet to 660 square feet was too significant.
“I just feel we’ve really got to be careful how much we’re limiting on such a critical, important issue,” Planning Board member Kathy Sylvester said. “We went from 10,000 to 2,100. I thought that was a huge reduction. I’m not sure we need to keep going down.”
Finance Committee member Jeff Upton, speaking as a resident, said limiting ground-mounted solar arrays to 660 square feet works for everyone because it is still a sizable system and does not impact neighbors’ views.
“I like the idea of the combination of the roof mount and ground mount, with the ground mount being maxed at 660 square feet,” Upton said. “You get to 2,100 square feet on a ground mount … that can cause obstruction of view and so on and so forth with neighbors.”
Planning Board member Rachel Blain said solar arrays can be jarring to look at because people aren’t used to them being in everyone’s yards, but their appearance will be more common as years go by and more people install them.
“It’s going to take us some time as a community to look at and see it with the right eyes,” Blain said. “It does impact a next-door neighbor in a way that I think is not insignificant and I think until we have our eyes kind of tuned to it, I think we want to be gentle with what we are allowing by right.”
Ultimately, the Planning Board approved the same motion it had shot down earlier in the meeting, limiting small-scale solar arrays to 660 square feet and putting the town’s bylaws in line with state regulations.
In other business, the Selectboard joined the meeting to discuss a bylaw that would reduce frontage requirements for municipal facilities in the Center Village District to 50 feet.
Selectboard member Carolyn Shores Ness said the town has three projects in mind that would benefit from this bylaw revision: the Leary Lot, the proposed North Main Street Park and property off of Braeburn Road.
“It is an article for frontage for any municipal facility,” fellow member Trevor McDaniel clarified. “We would always be coming to the Planning Board for a site plan review. We have these three projects in mind because we’re trying to tackle several items.”
McDaniel further explained these reduced frontage requirements in the Center Village District would allow the town to develop lots that cannot be used right now.
“You see this in any big city or any large town where you’ve got really tight areas, you need to have access,” McDaniel said. “This uses property for municipal use to benefit all residents of the town, it’s not looking for a blanket, ‘Hey we’re going to put anything, anywhere we want.’”
A public hearing on the proposed frontage bylaw change will be held Sept. 13 in preparation for putting it on the Special Town Meeting warrant.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.