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COOLSPRING TOWNSHIP – Talk of solar farms in Mercer County’s Coolspring Township has drawn glaring rebukes from some residents toward its supervisors.
“People have called our township secretary to say they want her to contact our solicitor to find out how we can be thrown out of office,’’ Dale Bestwick, a Coolspring Township supervisor, said. “If I get thrown out because of solar panels, I’ll laugh going out of the driveway.’’
Zoning these developments has been a major headache for everyone across Pennsylvania.
Solar farms have been cropping up nationwide for decades. Once thought the domain of areas with lots of sunlight like Nevada or Arizona, plans are afoot to construct them locally.
Better-performing solar panels is the key reason. Those believing there are plans for lots of solar farms in Mercer County are right, Dan Gracenin, executive director of the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission, said.
“We’re probably the top site in all of Pennsylvania,’’ Gracenin said.
He gives two reasons for that: Plentiful cheap farmland and a large excess capacity to take on more electric power in the local grid system.
“The system was built for when we had a lot of mills that needed large amounts of electricity,’’ Gracenin said. “Many of those mills closed.’’
Last month, the planning commission gave its recommended approval for the ninth solar farm application. Lisa Holm, a senior planner for the agency, said she has heard that four more applications are in the works but haven’t been submitted to the agency.
“The planning commission can recommend zoning ordinances for a community, but has no powers to mandate them,’’ Holm said, adding that the commission doesn’t have the power to reject a solar farm application.
The timing of when a development project application such as a solar farm is submitted to a community is critical.
“The moment an application comes in, it has to abide by the set of rules that are in place,’’ Gracenin said. If a municipality later passes more-restrictive zoning regulations, they would not apply to a project with plans already filed.
Sunrise Energy, based in Green Tree, near Pittsburgh, is constructing a solar farm on about 20 acres of land it leases in the township. The township zoning board approved the project with 15 stipulations, such as fencing around the solar panels and planting shrubbery around the fence line, which Sunrise agreed to.
“They didn’t have to do that,’’ Bestwick said of Sunrise’s decision. “And my understanding is the only way we supervisors can change a zoning board’s ruling is if we take that to court.’’
The 15 stipulations became a core part of zoning regulations for solar farms that were adopted by township supervisors in December, he said.
Sunrise also agreed to those stipulations on another solar farm project it has in mind for Coolspring Township. Township officials agreed to a permit for that project, but have not yet issued the permit. The company is required by state and federal regulations to conduct an environmental study of the site, Bestwick said.
“That’s going to take a long time,’’ he said. “I doubt there will be any construction there until next spring.’’
The township’s current solar farm zoning rules require setbacks of 50 feet from the road and 30 feet from the property line. Residents attending various public township meetings have been clamoring for a 500-foot property line setback.
Bestwick said he isn’t sure if that would survive if challenged in court.
“I’m not sure of the law,’’ he said. “But my understanding is you can’t create a zoning regulation for a particular piece of property that is so severe that it would make a project impossible.’’
Gracenin puts a lot of blame on the state legislature for sitting on proposed measures for years governing solar farms.
“We need the guys in Harrisburg to tell us what we can and can’t do,’’ he said.
And like others interviewed, Gracenin said solar farms are so new that everyone locally has been undergoing a crash course in learning how they work and operate.
“Everyone is doing the best they can at this,’’ he said.
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