NORTHFIELD — The Planning Board, in a split vote, denied BlueWave Solar’s special permit application for a second proposed solar project on Pine Meadow Road, following a three-hour hearing.
BlueWave Solar’s proposal called for a 4,316-panel solar array within a fenced-in area, and while the company did not have a farming contract executed, the proposal also cited a local partner. BlueWave Solar had received approval in 2021 to construct a three-array, 26,000-panel, 10.9-megawatt project on the same road.
Planning Board members Joe Graveline and Tori Luksha voted against approving the special permit, with the vote failing 3-2 on Tuesday night. Under Massachusetts state law, special permits must receive a supermajority of affirmative votes, meaning four votes on a five-person board or a unanimous vote from a three-member board. Special permits can be approved by a simple majority, only if the project meets certain conditions.
In issuing the denial, Luksha read from a document that explained the board’s reasoning. The document, provided to the Recorder from the Planning Board, offers pieces of supporting evidence and reasoning for the denial of the special permit.
“The applicant did not seek to locate the project in an area of the town that was outside of the Floodplain Overlay District,” the document reads, “and as such, not subject to the additional Floodplain Overlay District Special Permit criteria.”
Other reasons include studies provided by Jim Limbrunner that show groundwater present on the site is flowing and not ponding; studies from Stephen Garabedian and Scott Horsley showing that the installation of solar panels will cause greater water accumulation; another study from Horsley and Garabedian that shows the project will not meet Stormwater Standard 2 applied by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and evidence of flooding due to regular occurring hard rain.
Before the vote occurred, Planning Board Chair Margaret “Meg” Riordan told the board that “if a denial is issued tonight, it may mean [the special permit] gets approved without any conditions” if BlueWave Solar appeals to Land Court, like the company did following the denial of a special permit by the board in 2024.
Vice Chair Tammy Pelletier echoed these sentiments with earlier comments, saying that the court wanted the Planning Board to find specific evidence to challenge the Dover Amendment, and she didn’t believe the board had found it.
“We have very important work to do. … I think it’s time to go forward with other projects,” Pelletier said, such as an accessory dwelling unit bylaw and a moratorium on data centers.
One concern from board members mentioned earlier in the meeting was the rainfall runoff rate during the transition period from a rotational meadow (meaning that the land had a previous use before becoming a meadow) to a straight (permanent) meadow. Garabedian said that during discussion, the meadow should be treated as a rotational meadow, as it would take some time for hay to be cultivated long enough to be considered a straight meadow.
He said how the agriculture is managed will have an impact on rainfall runoff, with Horsley saying that farmers have a right to do whatever they feel is appropriate, and that “my sense is, over time, [the farmland] will probably go to the best and highest use,” meaning row crops. He finished by saying that when those assumptions are used, versus a permanent meadow, the project doesn’t meet Stormwater Standard 2.
Mike Zhe, the project director for BlueWave Solar, said that annual performance and compliance checks are “baked into” the farm plan. Rich Riccio of Field Engineering concurred, saying that the design was based on the approved farm plan, and that “if conditions changed … due to the farm plan, we would address that,” adding that he doesn’t expect there to be many erosive velocities taking place on the site.
As the public hearing was continued from the previous meeting, members of the public were able to share their thoughts with the Planning Board before it reached a decision. Tim Crowley, a resident of Northfield, said that “outside of the extraordinary visual blight,” he was concerned about “the combined runoff from … this project into this site.”
Northfield Police Chief Jon Hall added that it was “nothing to the people up front,” referencing Zhe and BlueWave Solar legal counsel Tad Heuer, “but they’re getting paid,” with resident John Buxton saying that BlueWave was not “here to save our farmers.
“They don’t care,” Buxton continued, referencing BlueWave Solar. “None of them live in our farming village of Northfield.”
Town counsel Jeffrey Blake emphasized that after the decision in the Sunpin Energy Services case in Petersham, the board had a “very narrow aperture” that it was working within, adding that the court will not allow the board to deny the special permit if the concern can be addressed by a condition. Blake also said that most of the conditions within the proposal came from BlueWave Solar.
“I haven’t seen anything that makes me comfortable,” Graveline said. “I don’t see a pin that anchors down the conditions.”
Blake said that the management of this site could come down to municipal actors, who “are believed to act in good faith,” noting that being uncomfortable about the execution of the conditions would not be sufficient to deny the special permit in the court’s eyes.
“We’re human beings sitting on a board … now I hear marching orders coming down [from] the governor,” Graveline said. “How about, we err way on the side of caution.”
