Unofficial summary. This is a community summary of the town's official minutes, provided so the record is searchable and readable. It condenses the meeting and may omit detail. Some private individuals’ personal details have been left out. The official signed PDF is the complete record of authority.
A note on the link above: the town’s record of this meeting is a Word document from the Town Clerk’s office, and it is no longer available on the town’s website. The “Official PDF” link is a copy we host, converted to PDF for reading; the content is the town’s, unaltered, and we keep the original Word file alongside it. For a certified copy, ask the Town Clerk.
The Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Schaghticoke met at the Town Hall, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose, on Thursday, August 3, 2023. In the Chairman’s absence, Rich Geddis moved to open the meeting at 7:08 p.m. (Geddis · Griswold · all), followed by a roll call.
Present: Vice Chairman Jason Shover, Rich Geddis, and Kristin Griswold. Absent: Chairman Ed McDonough and Lettie Saheim. Deputy Town Attorney Kristin Pratt was absent; Clerk Elizabeth Hale was present.
Lacking a quorum to act, the Board could not approve the July 6 minutes, which will be reviewed in September.
ASD Schaghticoke Solar I hearing — postponed
The hearing on Active Solar Development’s Schaghticoke Solar I application for area variances (a proposed facility at 131 Stillwater Bridge Road) was postponed at the applicant’s request because of a title issue the applicant is resolving. A new hearing will be re-noticed — posted, published, and mailed to residents within 500 feet of the proposal.
Four residents who came anticipating the hearing were heard:
- A resident worried she might not be able to sell her father’s house if the project is approved, and asked whether the electricity would be used locally and whether townspeople would see a discounted National Grid rate.
- An adjacent resident said he had not received a hearing notice; the Clerk recorded his information and assured him a notice would be mailed when a hearing is rescheduled. (The Clerk later confirmed his address was on the certificate of mailing, showing a notice had in fact been certifiably mailed.)
- A resident who owns an existing solar farm elsewhere in the town expressed concern about the applicant’s request for no setbacks.
- A former ZBA Chairman, now a resident, reviewed the notice provisions — that residents within 500 feet of the property lines should receive notice five days before a hearing — and reminded the Board of its custom of hearing from nearby landowners. He also raised end-of-life concerns about solar panels, citing a newspaper article and a workshop, and argued that many panels are not recycled but landfilled, potentially depositing metals into the soil.
Vice Chairman Shover noted that questions of compromise or mitigation on the setbacks are worked out through the public-hearing process, and that the outcome is unknown until the hearing is held.
The Board adjourned at 7:45 p.m. (Griswold · Geddis · all).
Respectfully submitted by Elizabeth Hale, Clerk.
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