Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday approved a one-year extension of the amended special permits for a proposed Large-Scale Photovoltaic Installation in a Ground Water Protection district on a Scenic Highway (Route 105) on Braley Hill Road.
At the Planning Board’s last meeting, the applicant’s attorney, Gregory Sampson, was instructed to return with the standard language for an insurance contract that protects the town as well as the applicant from insurance liability. On August 13, Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson was happy with Sampson’s response, that the applicant’s insurance policy will protect the town from damages as well.
Sampson also noted good news regarding how much damage can occur should the glass panels shatter in a severe storm. The panels are on a slant, he said, so the shards will collect at their bottom end, not on the ground. Johnson concluded by asking that an approval letter be drafted that the board will sign at its next (August 27) meeting.
Next, another project overseen by Sampson was not so successful. A public hearing to amend and extend the special permits for a proposed solar-energy installation on 128 acres at 529, 523 and 0 Snipatuit Road and Featherbed Lane within the Mattapoisett River Valley Watershed and Groundwater Protection district received a continuance to August 27 without a decision.
As was the case with the Braley Hill project, Johnson said, the board must await Field Engineering’s word on how performance-bond amounts will be changed with the extension.
The board then went back into approval mode. It endorsed the Site Plan Review modification request for Rochester Crossroads, 22 Cranberry Highway, wherein the applicant proposed replacing a paved rear-access way to County Road with a gravel road.
The panel’s last meeting on the plan yielded discussion over whether to place a gate at the end of that road. On August 13, Johnson and the board approved the specifications on the kind of gate being approved for that road. It will be one that will open automatically to parties exiting the property and tied to the Fire Department’s fire-suppression system.
The board also endorsed an Approval Not Required application filed by the Buzzards Bay Coalition for 84 New Bedford Road. Coalition representative Rick Charon explained a 35-acre parcel is being split into two lots. One lot will measure 7.5 acres to include a Form A lot with a greenhouse that will be up for sale, and the other will be a 27-acre field for agricultural purposes.
In other action, the board continued until August 27 the Site Plan Review application for a self-storage facility off County Road that was filed by Highland Development Ventures and proposes four buildings, one of which would be multistory.
The board signed the Mylar plans for the JPF Development self-storage facility on County Road and the BriggsBraims LLC hobby barn project on New Bedford Road.
Johnson said the rectified battery-storage bylaw approved at the spring Town Meeting left out pieces of the new bylaw that should have been included. The board approved placing a new version of this bylaw that includes those missing pieces on the October 21 Special Town Meeting warrant.
The board reviewed the Neck Road solar project’s screening from Snipatuit Pond. Board members said the screening is inadequate. The applicant’s representative said they are willing to do more but not erect a fence, as the property’s owner would not approve. Johnson concluded the board should schedule a site visit.
The Rochester Planning Board’s next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 27, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Planning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco