Twin Bridges Investments Inc. sought a use variance needed to build an 8- to 9-megawatt solar farm on a property it owns between Mays Landing and Hance Bridge roads near Covered Bridge Road. The company previously had earned approval to build 18 single-family houses on that property, the city’s senior planner Steve Hawk said.
The new proposal went before the board last week.
Solicitor Frank DiDomenico reminded the board at the start of the hearing that the state has ruled solar fields are inherently beneficial.
But at the end of a three-hour hearing, the board rejected the request for the variance, concluding the project would have a negative impact.
“Solar power is inherently beneficial, but in this case, it’s not,” Vice Chairwoman Elaine Greenberg said when she voted to reject the proposal.
Board member Robert Ortega felt the applicant didn’t justify why the lot was suitable for solar use.
“It’s a good idea. It’s a great idea,” Ortega said. “ Solar is the way to go, but this property is a double-edged sword because you’re doing something good for the environment, but your destroying something good to do that.”
Michael Gruccio, the attorney representing the company, argued governmental and public utility facilities are “permitted on a widespread basis” across the city in the zone that includes the property. The state also doesn’t specify that a solar field is only beneficial on “brownfields” or deforested land, he noted. Inherent use means a use is universally considered a value to the community, he told the board.
Gregory Fusco, a licensed professional engineer hired to represent the company, said other uses permitted in the zone, such as a golf course or subdivision, also would call for heavy tree clearing and potentially more noise.
Charles Gabage, an attorney representing some of the neighbors, said the project application explains the company is proposing the solar farm in lieu of its original plan to build houses on that property because of a downturn in the economy. Greenberg read that section of the application aloud when it was her turn to vote and noted, to her, that made the project “purely financial.”
Some of the roughly 30 people who attended the meeting raised various concerns.
Jane Morton Galetto of Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries noted the property is a well-known home to an endangered species, the red-headed woodpecker.
David D’Alessandro, a neighbor to the property, said bringing down that many trees likely would increase the noise residents already hear from Route 55 and the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville.
Area resident Bryan Fallucca said he’s in favor of green energy, but added, “There is a place for it, and deforesting 39 acres is not the way to do it.”
Source: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20111122/NEWS01/311220032
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