A solar array being proposed on a five-parcel heavily wooded area on VanBuren Road near a village of Fredonia neighborhood created some friction during the Pomfret Town Board meeting this month.

“We recognize that the east side of our project sits against a neighborhood in the village of Fredonia,” began RIC Energy Permitting Manager John Reagan. “We sent some information to the neighbors and talked to them several times. We revised our site plan and resubmitted that site plan for this month’s meeting. Essentially the changes that were made is that we eliminated about 2,600 of the modules on the eastside of the project which basically moves the set back by another 75-80 feet, so now we’ll have a setback of about 180 feet from the property line to the solar arrays.”

Reagan shared the company had already proposed landscape plantings along that whole side and continue to propose that.

The area known on paper as the VanBuren Solar Farm is to be located at 4545 VanBuren Road, abutting Bernett Drive in the village of Fredonia. The 24.47 acres is sat within both town and village limits, therefore, to make things easier the organization is looking at turning the two parcels in the village limits into conserved property that can never be developed.

“This is a heavily wooded area,” said Ann Eckman, Pomfret board member. “I know what lives in those woods, there will be a lot of impact on the wildlife. That’s a concern to me that we’re taking 20 some acres of heavily wooded mature trees and pulling them out.”

“We’re sensitive to that and again that’s the reason that we chose to place some land in conservation so that that can’t be developed ever,” Reagan stated. “I don’t know if that makes up for it.”

This section of land that sits just to the south of the proposed project has at least one parcel measuring 19 acres.

Drainage was also a concern and Regan assuaged those fears noting that little would change with the project.

“Our project is not going to change the overall drainage pattern,” Reagan shared. “The meadowgrass that we’ll plant around the panels will slightly reduce the overall runoff of the site, so there’ll be no impact from drainage with this project.”

The group has a stormwater pollution prevention plan in place for construction, the Army Corps of Engineers has visited the site for wetlands assessment and they have also submitted an operation and maintenance plan which includes inspection and vegetation management.

When asked about the feelings of the residents in that area Regan said “generally they’re not happy with the proposal, we believe that with the existing vegetation that’s there and our additional plantings the project will not be visible from that location.”

If the project moves forward RIC will contract with a local contractor that does tree removal and if the wood has value they’ll find a market for it, while the stumps and the nonmarketable wood will be chipped up and used for mulch to stabilize the site during construction.

No public hearing date has been set yet on the project.