The Granville Planning Board is looking over the conditions that Gale Head Development needs to complete before moving forward. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
GRANVILLE – The Planning Board continued the site plan review for the solar installation at 1730 Main Rd. during the continued public hearing at the Granville Town Hall on Monday night.
As part of the hearing continuance, the Planning Board noted conditions for the developer to fix in order for the project to move forward. The continued public hearing will take place on February 2 at 7 p.m. at the Granville Town Hall.
Located at 1730 Main Rd., the property is owned by Charles Sheets and is looking to utilize 4.96 acres of his 91-acre property to install a large-scale ground-mounted solar photovoltaic installation. According to the developer, Gale Head Development, access to the site of the solar installation will come from Sheets Road, which is off of Main Road.
Prior to making the decision to continue the site plan review, Michael Petrin of VHB, the engineer thatwass hired by the Town of Granville to review projects, recommended to the Planning Board to continue the hearing and have Gale Head fix the conditions.
However, David Berson, an attorney for Bacon and Wilson who’s representing Gale Head Development for the project, noted that his clients would like to have a decision made on Monday evening.
“We feel that we could certainly provide the update information,” said Berson.
Throughout the meeting, Gale Head went over the previous revisions that Petrin requested and Petrin then made comments on those revisions.
A major discussion about the revisions was figuring out if the proposed 4.96 acres is actually 4.96 acres or more than five acres since anything more than five acres would require a Zoning Board of Appeals variance.
The issue is that the fenced in area of the site is 4.96 acres, but if the Planning Board decided to include what’s outside of the fence, the project is around 5.37 acres.
As a result, the Planning Board had to vote on whether the project includes what’s outside of the fence or not.
“My vote would be that the area within the fence be considered less than five acres,” said Planning Board Chairman Rich Pierce.
The Planning Board proceeded to vote unanimously in favor of only counting what’s inside the fence and keep the project at 4.96 acres.
Prior to the Planning Board ending the hearing and continuing it to February 2, residents in attendance gave their thoughts on the project. Elaine Wissig, who isn’t a direct abutter but is close to the site on Main Road, is worried about the number of solar projects that are being brought into Granville. Pierce acknowledged that there are five projects in Granville that are being proposed, although each of them are in completely different stages in the process.
“I’m just concerned Granville is moving too quickly,” said Wissig.
On December 20, the town held a special town meeting where the proposed project on 1730 Main Rd. was approved by the voting residents to allow the Select Board to enter into negotiations with Gale Head. The negotiations would allow the two parties to have the possibility of moving forward with the project and entering into an agreement. Since residents voted in favor of the warrant article, the town can now benefit from the state’s PILOT program (Payment in Lieu of Taxes). The PILOT program takes the place of personal property taxes.
