LIVERMORE FALLS — Planning Board members voted Jan. 15 to further discuss changes to the town’s Solar Ordinance at 5 p.m. Jan. 22 so if approved they can be brought to voters at the April 29 annual town meeting referendum.

Livermore Falls Planning Board members from left Gayle Long, Carole Barker, Tom Barker, Tim Fournier and Bernal “Bill” Bailey discuss limiting the size of solar farms at their meeting Jan. 15 at the town office. The board will meet again on Jan. 22 at 5 p.m. to consider amendments to the town’s Solar Ordinance. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Town Manager Carrie Castonguay said the deadline was Feb. 13 for warrant articles the town wishes to present to voters in April.
Selectman Jim Long said the selectmen had been discussing the ordinance. “We had a question about whether or not we wanted to have a moratorium on solar farms,” he noted.
The selectmen chose not to go that route, Long said he was approaching the Planning Board about adding limitations to the size of solar farms allowed in town, perhaps 15 or 20 acres.
In Greene, “a Massachusetts developer put together 600 acres of land and proposed to put a solar farm on six acres in one project, and the town really didn’t take too well to that,” Long said. “It’s all clustered around the CMP transmission line, because that’s the cheapest way to do it, in terms of connection. And I was thinking the big assets that the town has is the CMP transmission line – that we have – in terms of a resource. That and the river for recreational purposes.”
The developer offered Greene roughly $2 billion in additional taxes a year the first year, and a million dollars thereafter, Long stated. Their annual town budget is $2 million to begin with. But the townspeople didn’t really care for it, and 400 people came out to a special meeting and resoundingly voted it down, he noted.
Greene’s solar ordinance is similar to the one for Livermore Falls, they amended their ordinance so future solar farms could not exceed an area of 15 acres, Long said. They wanted to have solar farms on a more manageable basis, not do away with them completely, he noted.
Long said Livermore Falls is ripe for solar farms along its CMP corridor, Greene did all the legwork for amending the solar ordinance. He asked if the Planning Board would be in favor of something similar. “Our ordinance doesn’t have restrictions,” he noted. He said wording could be included to allow for a variance from selectmen if one was ever needed.
Planning Board member Tim Fournier asked about a solar farm being approved at the 15 acre limit, then three years later the owner asking for another one on the same property.
Planning Board member Gayle Long said the owner would have to come back to the board, go through the whole process again.
There would be added costs to do so, making it less attractive to developers, Jim Long noted. He proposed having the amendment ready for consideration at the annual town meeting so the town wouldn’t be facing situations like those in Farmington or the one attempted in Greene.
Castonguay said there had been discussion about fire department protection with solar farms, suggested that at the same time NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] language be added to make sure firefighters are protected.
Gayle Long said she would write up the proposed changes and get them to the board members to review prior to the Jan. 22 meeting.
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