The Presque Isle City Council has approved changes to the city’s land use ordinance designed to hide large solar arrays from public view, reaching a compromise with its planning board after several months of back and forth.
New commercial solar facilities in the city will now have to be set back 100 feet from a paved road, 400 feet from any residence, and buffered by four rows of trees, the council decided on Wednesday.
It’s a far cry from the original 1,200 foot setback proposed by the Planning Board in September, a change that board chair Bruce Roope told the council in October was designed to prevent new solar projects from being erected.
“We have plenty of solar panels in Presque Isle,” Roope said at the time. “It’s time for other communities to step up.”
The changes are toned down, but reflect how communities throughout Maine have contested the rapid expansion of solar energy production, which has grown from 62 megawatts in 2019 to 1,832 by the end of June — enough to power 341,776 homes, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The state has said solar energy is a key piece to meeting its goal of 80% renewable energy by 2030. But on a local level, some residents see the projects as eyesores or lament potential wildlife displacement and the clearcutting of large swaths of trees.
More than a dozen cities and towns across the state have enacted moratoriums to put large-scale solar projects on hold in recent years, among them Brewer, Hermon and Madawaska. Presque Isle itself considered a moratorium earlier this year.
Other municipalities have expanded setback requirements as a means of control over new developments. Skowhegan changed its solar ordinance this summer to push new projects to 400 feet away from a paved road. Towns like Levant and Alna enforce setbacks more inline with what Presque Isle approved, at 150 and 100 feet, respectively.
The initial 1,200-foot setback proposal, which the council called “drastically overkill,” is unparalleled in the state. The distance approved Wednesday signalled the council’s desire not to kill future solar projects in the city, where there are currently 15, according to Roope.
“I feel like solar is important,” Councilor Mike Chasse said. “Up to 2024, there’s $16 million in value added to the community and $216,000 in taxes … that’s half a mill paid to the community. It’s jobs, it’s power, it’s local generation. If something happens in the future, we have power that we’re generating here.”
The Planning Board’s new recommendation presented a drastic step back from its previous position: 250 feet from a paved road and 250 feet from a residence.
Chasse countered with a new proposal, which the council ultimately approved, referring to the 250-foot setback from a road as “too restrictive.”
“I think 100 feet would be fine with the buffering,” Chasse said. “But I feel like it should be further away from residences. I think there’s plenty of places where you’ve got trees along the road and 100 feet away from the road, the trees are buffering [the solar array], no issue.”
The buffer requirement carried over from the original proposal, though councilors in September questioned the necessity of four rows of trees. With the exception of openings for gates and accessways, the trees must be planted on all sides of the project.
The rows of trees must be staggered and either coniferous or evergreen, the ordinance now mandates. They also have to stand at least six feet tall when planted and reach the height of the solar panels within five years. No one tree species can make up more than 50% of those planted.
The amended ordinance also instituted several more changes that faced no pushback. Among them, gates on new projects now must be orientated “away from the primary view of the general public.”
Additionally, commercial arrays under three acres now have to provide an independent decommissioning report to “demonstrate that the total cost of the financial assurance is equal to the actual cost to decommission,” a requirement added to limit the possibility of the city being forced to cover the cost of a decommissioning. There are no commercial projects in the city under three acres currently, Presque Isle Deputy Innovation Director Tim St. Peter said in September.
Another new clause in the ordinance mandates that unused and broken panels be removed immediately during construction and within 90 days of damage after a project is commissioned.
