The Special Permit application for a solar farm slated for the historic center of Rochester has been withdrawn, essentially killing any progress the project has made with the Rochester Planning Board over the past 12 months since the application was first filed.
A letter dated June 28, 2016 from developer Renewable Generation LLC’s engineer gives a vague explanation for the withdrawal.
“On behalf of the applicant … please accept this letter as a formal request to withdraw, without prejudice, the Special Permit application submitted for the proposed large-scale ground mounted solar electric generation facility [at 620 New Bedford Road],” writes Andrews Survey & Engineering, Inc. Vice President Stephen O’ Connell. “Due to extenuating permitting challenges, the applicant has requested that the project not move forward at this time.”
During a July 5 phone interview, Rochester Town Counsel Blair Bailey confirmed that the solar farm project is essentially “dead in the water” now that a new zoning bylaw adopted at the Rochester Annual Town Meeting on June 13 made certain amendments to the Limited Commercial Zoning District that prohibit large-scale ground mounted solar arrays within the zoning district and historic district.
“The one downtown here can’t proceed under the new change,” said Bailey. “The only provision that was passed that has the effect of putting a stop, at least for now … is the change that doesn’t allow ground-mounted solar.”
The solar project, instead of a Special Permit application, would need to apply for a use variance with the Zoning Board of Appeals, Bailey stated.
“Variances are very hard to get,” said Bailey. “As they should be very hard to get, because zoning exists for a reason.”
Other challenges to the permitting process, said Bailey, have been requests from various state agencies such as the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (NHESP) and the Massachusetts Historical Commission for site studies, which had halted the project for a number of months now.
Massachusetts General Law, when it comes to a zoning bylaw such as this one, according to Bailey, “If [a project was] in the pipeline, unless you have a permit in hand before the first date of the publication of the proposed zoning change, it would apply to you.”
This was news to the Rochester Planning Board.
“It was a surprise,” said Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson over the phone on July 5. “That wasn’t our intent (to shut down the project). Our intent was to preserve the remaining open lands that are there in the center.” Johnson continued, “I’ve never run into that before with zoning. It’s usually the applications have been protected by a grandfather status, so any applications we had in there … we didn’t know that we were doing this.”
There are other avenues in addition to the variance application with the ZBA, stated Johnson. The developer could scale down the project not to exceed the 250-kilowatt maximum of the new bylaw, or simply hope the Attorney General’s Office strikes down the town’s new regulation.
“You never know,” said Johnson. “The state is a liberal state. They like green energy.”
Johnson referred to the NHESP and Massachusetts Historical Commission, the two state agencies that were essentially battling one another over the historical commission’s request for an archeological dig and the NHESP’s opposition to digging up the habitat.
“I think that’s an obstacle, not only for them, but for anyone who wants to buy the property and wants to put a business there,” said Johnson. “Any property within that district now that wants to propose a use would have to go through that.”
Abutters and neighbors to the site had also strongly opposed the project from the start, hoping for a miracle to delay and eventually put an end to the solar farm project that would have led to extensive tree-clearing of the wooded area between New Bedford Road and the historic cemetery on Dexter Road.
The withdrawal without prejudice allows the developer to re-apply in the future, instead of waiting the two mandatory years before re-filing, although Bailey said, under the current circumstances, the Special Permit route would be unlikely.
“The impact of that is … they can re-file, but any re-filing would have to be under the new bylaw,” Bailey said.
By Jean Perry
