 |
Planning Board meeting minutes: 6/28/12
- Members Present: Maggie Leonard; co-chair, Stephen Enoch; co-chair, Bridget Krans, Alan Salaman, Larry Klein, Roger Tryon, and Barry Karson
- Meeting to order: 7:11
- Previous meeting minutes: Approved as amended
- No Business from the public
- Solar bylaw: Larry wondered how we would deal with land owner’s whose land is for farming purposes and that want to put in solar arrays. Will they be able to subdivide? The board speculated as to why Gould Farm would decide not to allow a company to put up a solar array. Bridget wondered why you could not farm or harvest the sun. Roger felt that was a stretch. He pointed out that if someone wants to take their land out of chapter then they have to pay back a portion of the taxes that were waived. Larry stated that the solar company may pay that. Roger felt that there are a lot of fields that are not agriculture that would be good for solar arrays. Roger felt that it would be a shame to take away nice fields. Roger felt that even though fields are not being used right now in the future things may
change and it would be nice to still have that option. Larry felt that the flip side of that is that the town would be using it for a green commerce and in turn not producing or harvesting any fossil fuels.
- Maggie pointed out the open fields on route 23. Both Maggie and Roger felt that putting solar arrays there would be inappropriate. Alan said we are missing the point. He pointed out that if we do not do anything then we are shirking our responsibility. We need to somehow decide where solar arrays should go. Alan stated that he has no idea where the expertise comes from to decide this. Maggie pointed out that the setback can be regulated and things such as plantings can be regulated. Stephen stated that he would be hesitant to say that people cannot do what they want on their private property just because we think it is a scenic sight. Stephen wanted to know how we empower individual property owners to do what they want to their land while maintaining the integrity and beauty of the town and not
taking away the personal rights of the individual land owners.
- Maggie thought it was a matter of screening to decide where to put the arrays. Alan felt that if that was the case we would just have an overlay district. Barry pointed out that we would not be prohibiting we would be regulating where it could be. The board was stumped on how to come up with guidelines on deciding which sites were appropriate and which were not. Maggie felt that there would be more sites available for solar than there was for cell towers. Stephen pointed out that when writing the cell tower bylaw we were able to rule out some spots (such as the lake shore district) due to the setbacks alone. Stephen felt it would be easier to look at setbacks than overlay districts. For example we could say that a minimum of 4 acres was needed and that would eliminate the lake shore district. Larry felt that
no one would ever consider using 4 acres for commercial because it would not produce enough to be viable. Larry felt that 40 acres or 50 would be more realistic. Stephen disagreed. He pointed out the Harvest Barn at Gould Farm has solar panels on the roof and the electric company was interested in that. Barry felt that the only problem of picking acreage was depriving due process to land owners that did not have the minimum amount of land. Stephen felt that if someone did not have enough land and wanted a solar array then they could go through the special permit process. Alan felt that it would not be a special permit because it is by right. Maggie pointed out that some can be by right and others can require a special permit. Roger wondered if the by right use is just for roof mounted. Maggie stated that we do not know. Alan felt that it is not just for roof mounted. Larry felt that it sounded like you could not restrict it by size if it is by personal use and not selling it. Barry
felt that this was for smaller systems.
- Maggie wondered if you have designated places by right then none of it can be a special permit. Alan suggested we call BRPC. Maggie will do that.
- Stephen asked what the boards feeling was on being and overlay district or site specific. Barry and Alan felt that site specific was the way to go. Roger pointed out that there is a big array at Berkshire School. Stephen suggested that we look into other towns and see what setback requirements they have. Maggie thought maybe the cell tower setback would be too much. Stephen pointed out especially because an array will cover a lot more area. Barry wondered what would be considered reasonable and what would be considered unreasonable.
- Stephen stated that at a minimum it needs to meet the current zoning bylaws for buildings and setbacks. We can make it stricter if that is what the board chooses. Barry wondered if there would be height restrictions. Larry explained that the height varies and this depends on the topography of an area as well as the average snow fall that an area receives. Stephen felt that when we determine what a height requirement will be keeping in mind that there is really no flat land in Monterey that 15 feet may be restrictive. The board felt that they could regulate fencing and screening. The board felt that they needed to look into fencing regulations in regards to safety.
- Larry felt that we are talking about a technology that is evolving as we speak. Eventually they will rotate to catch the sun. Currently more expensive arrays turn to follow the sun. Barry wondered if we can provide in the bylaw that prohibits specific arrays that have a tower and mirrors that collect and reflect sun.
- Alan wondered if the Planning Board wanted to be the reviewing agents. Maggie thought we needed to be because it requires a site plan review. The board felt that it could decide who the reviewing agents could be. Alan thought maybe we could designate an engineer to aid in the process. Stephen felt that an engineer would be helpful when the land is being prepared for the array as well. Maggie felt that looking at the one at Berkshire School would help in seeing an array in the Berkshires. Maggie felt that Berkshire School is more analogous to Monterey than looking at the array at Stanley Park. Barry felt that he needed to read up on other bylaws more before he made decisions regarding setbacks etc. Maggie wondered about acreage. Stephen felt that it had to at least follow our current bylaw which is two acres.
Larry felt that setting acreage did not make sense because the technology is always changing. The minimum needed is one acre. Stephen felt that we should stick with the two acres that is currently in the bylaw. He thought that allowing one acre opened up a lot of possibilities. Larry pointed out that the setbacks would take care of that.
- Alan will contact Brian Domina and discuss if they have any help available for this topic.
- Berkshire Regional Planning Representative: The board has a bad track record of not attending the meetings. Bridget felt that we should not have a representative and Maggie disagreed. The meetings are every other month. The board has a hard time figuring out when the meetings are. Barry kindly agreed to be the next representative.
- Open Mail: no mail
- Reports from Board Members: Maggie reported that Mr. Bonous of Main Road has heard that the cell tower company is going to be starting construction mid-July. Larry reported that according to Mr. Bonous the cell tower company has hired local contractors to start work on things such as drainage and excavating. Larry pointed out however that as of yet there has been no building permits applied for. Maggie heard that Florida Tower partners are a subsidiary and that Tarpon is the holding company. Larry explained that the holding company does not get involved in anything. They are just financial. No one has heard of any happenings on the cell tower at New England Keswick.
- Meeting Adjourned: 8:35
| |
