TURNER — Residents at Saturday’s annual town meeting approved changes to the town’s zoning ordinance for commercial solar farms that add specific requirements, including more guidelines to where they can be located, setback requirements and visual buffering rules.
Residents rejected proposed amendments at last year’s annual meeting, instead enacting a 180-day moratorium prohibiting new solar farm projects. The Select Board did not extend that moratorium after it lapsed last year.
This year, residents debated the benefits of having solar farm requirements in the zoning ordinance and were ultimately won over by Planning Board members who argued that having requirements to control where solar panel arrays can be constructed is better than none.
Planning Board Chair William Bullard said people are not outright against commercial solar arrays in town, but they do not want it in their backyards. The proposed changes are not much different than what was proposed at last year’s meeting.
Planning Board members crafted the changes with homeowner protections in mind, he said. Commercial solar arrays need access to three-phase power lines and those lines are not located in all areas of town, so that is another limiting factor regarding where they can be located.
Clinton Boothby, Turner’s town moderator, began Saturday’s annual town meeting by tallying votes on a motion brought to the floor by John Maloney to advance the discussion and vote on the solar farm zoning proposal. This required a two-thirds majority to move the agenda item up on the schedule. However, the motion failed. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Resident Dennis Richardson was concerned that the proposed amendments did not go far enough and asked if the ordinance prevented solar arrays from being visible while driving through town, wanting to avoid impacts to the town’s scenic beauty.
“I travel up and down the turnpike all the time … and all I see is the hideous looking solar panels everywhere,” he said. “Instead of looking at trees, we’re looking at crap.”
Town Manager Kurt Schaub said the ordinance amendments cannot guarantee that solar arrays will not be seen around town, but the intention of the ordinance is to require that they are not readily visible to the public and scenic viewsheds.
Select Board Chair Kurt Youland said that the requirements can be adjusted later to make them more or less stringent, but the proposal puts some protections in place now.
After residents passed commercial solar farm zoning ordinance amendments, they debated Hillandale Farms Conn’s request to have its poultry farm, where it produces eggs, rezoned from agriculture/industrial to rural 1.
The poultry farm has significantly reduced its operations since it was bought in 2015. Hillandale is selling about 900 acres of its roughly 1,600-acre farm. The property can only be used for certain farming and industrial uses and the only housing allowed in the zone is for farm workers. Rezoning the farm would expand the uses of the property and make it more marketable.
When it came time to vote on the request, the room fell silent with nobody appearing to vote in favor of the change and nearly all voting against the change.
Plains Road, seen Tuesday, divides Hillandale Farms Conn in Turner. The east side where the company is hoping to develop, is on the right. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Many residents spoke up during discussion about their reservations with a requested change that seemed rushed to them.
Resident Cindy Tibbetts objected to the change on three grounds. The first point being that it violates the town’s Comprehensive Plan, she said. Her second point was the lack of evidence that residents have seen to back up Hillandale’s claim that there are no major environmental issues with the property currently for sale that would put residential housing at risk.
Her final point was how ill-prepared she felt farm representatives were during a public hearing regarding the issue a couple of weeks ago, she said. She does not feel that it would provide an overall benefit to the town.
Hillandale representative James Curtis spoke at the meeting stating that the company continues to monitor the viability of operations at the farm and how it fits into the company’s business model moving forward.
In other business, proposed changes to the Comprehensive Plan and zoning changes in favor of affordable housing were passed with little or no discussion. Residents also decided to set aside $2,000 in the Pond Conservation Reserve for the Bear Pond Improvement Association.
Total municipal appropriations approved at the meeting amount to $3.8 million, according to Schaub, a more than 7% increase compared to last year’s budget.
Elections
Four people ran for two available seats on the Maine School Administrative District 52 board of directors. Ashley Michaud and Alex Cutter were elected to three-year terms, ousting incumbent Jessaka Nichols. Tammy Fereshetian did not seek reelection.
Selectmen Kevin Nichols and Kurt Youland both ran unopposed and were reelected for three-year terms. Four write-in candidates were elected to the Budget Committee. Dylan Luce and Zachary Vanier were elected as new members, and Jason Leavitt and Kyle Youland were both reelected.
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