Jun. 27—The Harpersfield Town Planning Board has set a public hearing for a proposed solar farm for July 31.

The meeting will be held at the Harpersfield Grange Hall instead of the town hall because of the anticipated participation of the public, Planning Board Chair Dean Darling said Wednesday, June 26.

The planning board has heard from Sean Murphy, senior consultant at land management consulting firm Flycatcher, and Robert Queirolo, manager of solar development at BlueWave Solar, about plans to build a third solar farm on the Eklund farm property since January. They handed out revised plans and photos depicting what the viewsheds would be in the town.

The third solar farm would be a 5.3 megawatt solar array on 34.85 acres on Bruce Hill Road. The town planning board has approved two other solar power projects on the property. Those projects are on the north and west side of the property. The proposed third project is on the eastern slope of the property facing the town and village of Stamford.

Since the original site plan was submitted, it has been adjusted to meet the concerns planning board members had including ground water recharge, slope, visual impacts, road use and the decommissioning plan. The latest adjustments included changes to the number of trees that will have to be removed and expanding the retention plan.

Planning Board Member Walt Keller, who has raised concerns about ground water recharge, said after looking at the newest plans and asking questions about the tree clearing and retention pond that the changes would “basically satisfy my concerns.”

Keller asked if the retention pond could be bigger. He also asked why it was being lined with stones because when it is decommissioned, the pond will be removed and the site will be transferred back to agricultural lands.

“Delaware County has got enough stone, it doesn’t need any in the bottom of that,” he said.

The town has retained attorney Robert McKertich from Coughlin & Gerhart LLP as counsel and Adam Yagelski, senior planner at Delaware Engineering, as expert in all solar farm proposals before the board.

During Wednesday’s meeting, McKertich said about the road use agreement. Blue Wave submitted plans to use Bruce Hill Road for the main road construction vehicles will used, however, that drew some concerns from Planning Board Member Dusty King. He suggested adding Peters and Odell Lake roads to the list because the intersection of state Route 23 and Bruce Hill Road is hard to navigate with a trailer hauling equipment.

McKertich said he would be talking with Highway Superintendent Russ Hatch about the road-use policy and get back to the company. The roads will be tested and surveyed prior to the start of construction.

Yagelski and Murphy discussed the decommissioning plan as each firm came up with a different figure for the plan. Murphy’s company submitted $188,000, while Yagelski’s said it should be $300,000. Murphy asked why it was so much larger than the Weaver Road project, when it’s a smaller project.

McKertich said the Weaver Road project was the first one the town approved, but realized it should look at other factors in the plan.

In addition to the proposed solar farm, the board discussed a proposed cell tower that will be placed on town property by Verizon.

Jared Lusk and Jack Redmond, representing Verizon, said the tower will help fill in dead zones along state Routes 23 and 10 in the town. The town passed a law in 2001 regulating communication towers that includes having setbacks twice as long as the tower is tall. The setback for the proposed tower would be 232 feet, Lusk said.

The town is proposing adding a provision to the law where companies can apply for a waiver when they apply for the project. The waiver would come from the planning board, which would also approve the site plans. The town board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. about amending the tower law during its July 10 meeting.

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.