BATAVIA — There will be more discussion on a proposed 20.6-acre solar energy farm on Oak Orchard Drive (Route 98), with a public hearing scheduled for March 7 at the Town Hall.
New Leaf Energy is seeking a special use permit to install a 5-megawatt solar system on 20.6 acres of farm land at 7755 Oak Orchard Rd. (Route 98).
The property is owned by Call Farms. The portion needed for the proposed project would be leased.
Wil Nieves, project developer for New Leaf Energy, formerly Borrego Solar, and Marc Kenward, senior associate at Erdman Anthony, LLC, consulting engineers, were at Tuesday’s Batavia Town Planning Board meeting to speak about the project.
“It’s a pretty straightforward project. We have about a 20-acre portion of the property, which is 83.5 acres,” Nieves said. “There is a 12-acre solar array on the site already (by a different developer), but, despite this, we are under the 50% total coverage for solar array.”
Kenward said the proposed 20-acre project will be on the east side of Oak Orchard Road. The driveway is about 1.6 miles north of the Thruway.
“It’s currently actively tilled farmland, some forested areas. The proposed new solar array would be between Oak Orchard Road and the existing 12-acre array,” he said. “Access is by way of a 20-foot-wide driveway. However, this plan shows the driveway coming straight out onto Oak Orchard Road, toward the north end of the site. We did an initial presentation on the project for New York State DOT for a driveway access permit and were told we can’t get one for here. We have to use the existing driveway.”
Kenward said the site plan was to be updated after Tuesday night’s meeting. He said the solar array in this project would be built in front of the existing solar array.
“Five to six new poles would be required for the interconnection,” Kenward said.
The board asked whether developers can keep the number of poles that needed for the project to three.
“We’ll strive to do that,” Kenward said. “I can’t guarantee that at this point, but we will minimize the number of poles by using ground-mounted equipment, so I want to assure you of that.”
There are poles in use with the 12 acres of solar that are already there. Kenward said he doesn’t believe the proposed 20-acre project can co-exist on those poles.
“I think each one (each project) has to have its own point of interconnection. I don’t believe it can share a pole,” he said. “It’s something Wil will have to look into.”
Nieves said the utility typically won’t allow projects to share a pole.
“Each site has to have its own emergency shutoff,” he said.
Kenward said by the time of the public hearing, a more definitive site plan should be available.
With the lot being about 83.5 acres, the tow says lot coverage can’t exceed 50%, or 41.5 acres in this case.
“We have an existing array that’s 12.4 acres. That’s the whole lease area, including the driveway,” Kenward said. “The proposed solar array area is 20.6 acres. That’s a total of roughly 33 acres, which is 39.6% of lot coverage.” Building Inspector Dan Lang said the new solar code puts solar projects into Tiers 1 through 4, with different guidelines for each of those.
“Same thing with Smart Growth Farmland Protection and everything else. We have a lot to do on our end for that (the 20.6-acre solar proposal) as well,” he said.
Kenward said, “We’re proposing landscaping in the form of two rows of conifer pines. Since this driveway won’t be permanent, there will be about 30 feet outside the fenceline to follow around,”
There’s a spot in the north end of the property for vegetation screening, he said.
“We have to have a permanent, topsoil berm\, establish this permanent topsoil pile. If the site is decommissioned, it can then have a supply of topsoil fore restoring the site,” he said.
The plan is to plant about 153 trees on two staggered rows and 6- 7-foot high conifers in 12-foot spacing, he said.
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