Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday began reviewing Eversource’s proposal for an electrical substation on 6.26 acres at 297 Rounseville Road.
The informal discussion of the plan started with Eversource representative Dan Hagen describing the project as an upgrade of electrical services in Rochester. Two larger transformers will quadruple power to the area, he said. Two new transformers will be included. Some tree clearing will be necessary, but the proposed landscaping will include additional screening from the road.
Board member John DiMaggio asked if the new substation will increase noise in the neighborhood and how will it be lit.
Eversource representative John Zicko responded that new substation transformers are so acoustically treated, “we’ve had to touch them to make sure they are live.” He added that the lighting that personnel will need for certain operations will normally be left off. “We will keep the lighting as reasonable as possible,” he said.
Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson asked about the construction timeline. Hagen estimated that Eversource will start construction by the start of 2025, and the facility will open by the end of 2026.
Johnson concluded by instructing the applicants to speak to Town Planner Nancy Durfee about the filing application and fees. Eversource representatives said they will seek a waiver of the site plan review’s traffic-study requirement. Johnson advised them to read the town’s site-plan-review requirements before they compile their waiver requests.
In other action, the board again continued the three large projects on its agenda to its next (August 13) meeting. The modified site-plan-review application for Rochester Crossroads, 22 Cranberry Highway, which replaces a paved rear-access way to County Road with a gravel road, yielded discussion over whether to place a gate at the end of that road.
The applicant’s engineering consultant, Philip Cordeiro, argued property owner Ken Steen wants that gate on the rear access road along County Road. Steen said, with the gate unauthorized, vehicles could use the road as a “cut-through” from the retail area to the residential parking lot.
Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge said he has been “anti-gate” since the project began for safety reasons. What if the gate is not opening when an emergency exit by residents is required? Eldridge explained.
Steen and Cordeiro said they could install gates that would open more easily than others. Johnson told them to bring in specifications on those kinds of gates on August 13.
The board continued its hearing into the request to extend for one year the Special Permit for the Braley Hill North solar facility, Braley Hill Road, after discussing insurance coverage that would indemnify the town should a catastrophic failure affect the solar array. The applicant’s attorney, Gregory Sampson, was instructed to return on August 13 with the standard language for such an insurance contract. But, first, the board approved the bond amounts that the applicant must post: two-year landscaping bond, $6,500; five-year landscaping bond, $13,000, and the decommissioning bond, $600,000.
The site-plan-review application hearing for a four-building, self-storage facility on County Road, which is part of the Rochester Crossroad project, was continued after Cordeiro asked the board for input as to whether the project could get a waiver of the requirement to include landscaping. All of the site’s abutters are industrial, Cordeiro explained. Board members said they agreed only minimal landscaping is required because of the site.
In other business, the board signed the Certificate of Completion for Tree Talk Natives, LLC, the new tree nursery business on Vaughan Hill Road.
The Rochester Planning Board’s next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 13, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Planning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco