The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) voted 12-3 on Thursday night to review a proposed solar energy system (SES) in Oak Bluffs as a development of regional impact (DRI). The applicant, Boston-based BlueWave Capital, is proposing to install a 3-megawatt, four-acre SES on a 45-acre parcel on the west side of Barnes Road, about a half-mile from the roundabout.
The Oak Bluffs Water District owns the land, which contains three wells in the Lagoon Pond Watershed. Oak Bluffs building inspector Mark Barbadoro referred the project to the MVC.
“We will try to move on this as expeditiously as possible,” MVC executive director Adam Turner told The Times in a telephone call on Friday morning. Mr. Turner said that the commission’s near unanimous decision was largely due to the fact that the parcel abuts land owned by Oak Bluffs and Edgartown as well as the State Forest, the groundwater protection district of critical planning concern (DCPC) in Tisbury, and the Greenlands Water Resource Protection DCPC in West Tisbury.
Screening the solar array was also a stated concern.
The SES is designed to have 4.17 acres of solar panels. It would require clearing 20.5 acres of the mostly wooded 45-acre site. The solar panels would be three to seven and a half feet above the ground. A six-foot-high fence is proposed around the facility, which would operate 24/7.
The facility would not be manned, but be monitored from offsite. No lighting has been proposed, and the noise that would be created by the SES is described as minimal.
The MVC vote runs counter to the opinion of the Oak Bluffs Planning Board (OBPB), which voted unanimously 4-0 on Jan. 28 that the project should not be considered a DRI because current solar zoning bylaws, which were passed at town meeting in 2015, were sufficient for reviewing the project.
“I think the general feeling is that you already have to go to the [OBPB] and the Zoning Board of Appeals for site-plan review,” OBPB chairman Brian Packish said. “It seems like a lot of duplicate process. We have bylaws in place and multiple layers of review, and it still has to go to the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) for review.”
The Water District chose BlueWave Capital following a request for proposals (RFP) for an SES. A portion of the solar credits would go to the Oak Bluffs Water District to cover its electricity costs; another portion would be offered to the town for purchase; the rest would be sold to residents in the Southeastern Massachusetts Utility Load Zone through Community Solar.
Abutters from the Little Pond subdivision have expressed concern about aesthetics and impeded access to their neighborhood.
The Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) also has not signed off on the project. In preliminary hearings, NHESP has encouraged BlueWave to consider less intrusive plans that would reduce the impact on state-listed species and their habitats.
The Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program exists within the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. It is a small agency with a powerful regulatory reach. Natural Heritage is responsible for the regulatory protection of rare species and their habitats, and derives its authority from the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.
Natural Heritage has review authority for any work that would be done on properties that fall within the category of state-designated “priority habitat.” It is a designation based on the known geographical extent of habitat for all state-listed rare species, both plants and animals.
On Martha’s Vineyard, the state has designated about two-thirds of the entire Island as priority habitat for protected animal or plant species.
To clear the way for an SES, in 2015 Oak Bluffs voters approved a solar energy systems zoning bylaw to “promote the use of solar energy by providing standards for the placement, design, construction, operation, monitoring, modification, and removal of such installations that address public safety, minimize impacts on scenic, natural, and historic resources, and provide adequate financial assurance for the eventual decommissioning of such installations.”
