ERVING — The Planning Board voted unanimously Thursday to continue the public hearing on a special permit application for a 250-kilowatt, ground-mounted solar array proposed for 1 River St. after requesting more information from the applicant.

Planning Board Chair Jacquelyn Boyden explained to Chris Meyerhoff, director of Northeast operations with applicant All Energy, that after reviewing the Westfield-based energy company’s application for the special permit, parts of it remained incomplete, with certain information being vague or incorrect. This prompted the board to continue the public hearing to its Nov. 19 meeting.

Meyerhoff said the plan is for the solar panels to primarily serve the Renovators Supply Manufacturing business, so the array will not be connected to the larger energy grid. The solar array would be located behind the buildings at 1 River St., 200 feet off the riverbank of the Millers River.

“I do have some questions about the site plan that was a little incomplete for what our zoning requires,” Boyden told Meyerhoff.

She explained the submitted site plan did not meet the requirements outlined in the section of the zoning bylaws regulating large-scale ground-mounted solar installations.

“[The bylaw] says that the proposed changes to the landscape on the site, grading, vegetation, the clearing, the planting, the exterior lighting, were all supposed to be in the plan, including identifying plant material ... and all we basically got was a [topographic] picture with a diagram on it,” Boyden stated.

Regarding the missing elements, Meyerhoff replied that the plans for the solar array do not include exterior lighting, there should be little visual impact to abutters and minimal grading of the landscape is planned. Although these elements are not planned, they are still required for a complete application, Boyden said.

The application also included a note about 2.5 acres of tree clearing to make room for the panels, but more in-depth information was not present in the application.

“Usually in the solar plans, they diagram where you have the solar array, the fencing and then the outskirts of where the vegetation will be removed … and none of that was present,” Boyden stated.

Other elements of the application that were missing included proof of liability insurance and plans for stormwater drainage. The addition of an access road for construction was brought up by Meyerhoff. Boyden said this still requires approval by the Erving Fire Department in the event of an emergency at that location.

Present at the meeting were Conservation Commission members David Brule and Maureen Black, who submitted a letter to the Planning Board ahead of the meeting saying that it was “quite clear to them” the project would require a notice of intent. A notice of intent is designed to be used for wetlands protection that both a municipal Conservation Commission can review along with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, according to the MassDEP website.

The letter said the application “misrepresents” the proposed solar array’s distance from the riverside, and no wetlands survey was included. Plant and soil information and flood considerations were not included either. The notice of intent can be filed at the same time as the special permit application and would be under the purview of the Conservation Commission.

Although that information was not included in the special permit application, Meyerhoff said there was a wetlands and waterfront review done.

“We did hire another party to go and do that, so we will make sure to provide that to you in the next round,” Meyerhoff said.

The Planning Board intends to revisit the special permit application on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.