Planning Board minutes Wednesday August 15, 2012
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m.
Members present: Maggie Leonard, co chair, Stephen Enoch, co chair, Roger Tryon.
The minutes from 7-12-12 were approved. The board decided to postpone approving the minutes from 6-28-12 and 7-26-12 until the next meeting when there would be more board members.
There was no business from the public.
Leonard presented a draft of the finding for a special permit application from Emerson-Clapp. The hearing is Thursday August 16, 2012. Enoch suggested that the specs for the parking requirement be copy/pasted from the bylaw directly into the finding. With that the board approved amendment made the draft.
The board continued the ongoing discussion regarding a solar bylaw for Monterey. We followed the advice of board member Alan Salmon from the prior meeting and named the various categories of regulation that we want to discuss for our bylaw:
Setbacks or overlay district
- Discussing the details of setbacks included: may depend on the height of the photovoltaic; consider water run-off; setback from roads, ponds, streams, and wetlands; consider proximity to dwellings.
Siting
- Discussion of siting included acreage requirements vs. wattage to indicate size of facility.
Lighting
Fencing
Screening
Height regulations
Drainage and Storm water management
Land clearing
Access roads
- Discussion of access roads included: road requirements; road setbacks from wetlands; access for emergency vehicles; maintenance and plowing; consult with Director of Operations for advice on width, etc.
Large-scale and small-scale
- Should we have 2 or 3 categories? Large-scale, small-scale, home/personal solar installation.
Enoch stated that he prefers designating specific areas of protection and specific distances for regulation, i.e. distance from ponds, wetlands etc.
The board discussed drainage and storm water run-off. Leonard stated that removing all the plants from a vegetated area and covering that same area with photovoltaic (an impervious surface) would significantly change the amount of run-off from the property. Leonard expressed the opinion that a good drainage plan would be an important part of any solar photovoltaic installation. Tryon cautioned against over-building of roads that may be better left dirt in order to better absorb water and prevent undue run-off.
To wrap things up the board opened the mail. There were a couple of public hearing notices, one from Great Barrington and one from Otis.
There were no reports from board members.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50.
Respectfully submitted,
Maggie Leonard, co-chair
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