EASTHAMPTON — An energy firm is seeking a special permit to construct a 250-kilowatt solar array over the existing capped and closed landfill within the wastewater treatment plant property.
The city’s Planning Board will hold its first public hearing with the company, Solect Energy, of Hopkington, on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
According to the firm’s application, Solect Energy is proposing the installation of a solar array over the former sludge lagoons at the northeastern side of the 17-acre parcel at 10 Gosselin Drive. Plans describe the array as having nine rows and a total of 774 modules that will cover 17,549 square-feet or .403 acres of the property.
The overall project, including rows of separation with existing vegetated strips and gravel entrances, will take up approximately 33,000 square feet or 0.76 acres, and will cost approximately $1.09 million.
Borrego Solar Systems of Lowell constructed a 2-megawatt solar array on the capped landfill on Oliver Street in September 2011. A solar array also was proposed for the Loudville Road capped landfill in 2009, but according to previous Gazette reports, residents were vocally against it.
In addition to the public hearing for the proposed solar array, the Planning Board also will host its second hearing on an estimated $26 million to $30 million redevelopment of the former Tasty Top site into a mixed-use residential and commercial center.
Construction for the project will be completed in four phases over a five-year period, and currently includes 188 apartments — 54 of which would be affordable — spread across nine, 18-unit buildings, and two mixed-use buildings with ground floor retail or commercial and apartment units above — 12 units in one building and 14 in the other, according to the proposal.
Other plans for the site include an approximately 9,000-square-foot Roots Learning Center, a 7,000-square-foot Roots Gymnastic Center, two sit-down restaurants, and two 13,600-square-foot mixed-use warehouse buildings.
Tasty Top Development LLC, which is registered to Frank A. DeMarinis, owner of Sage Engineering & Contracting Inc. of Westfield, submitted an application for this proposed development to the city’s Planning Board on Nov. 28. Tasty Top Development purchased the Northampton Street site from Dennis Courtney for $2.2 million on April 11.
At the Dec. 20 hearing, about a dozen residents offered up comments on the proposed development, tentatively being called “Sierra Vista Commons.” Outside of the meeting, residents and community groups have submitted letters of concern for the proposal, including the Historical Commission and Pascommuck Conservation Trust.
In the commission’s Dec. 19 letter to the Planning Board, members note that a portion of the 33-acre property that is considered for development borders remnants of the Hampshire and Hampden Canal and requested that developers preserve that section and refrain from parking heavy equipment, storing soil and limiting construction activities. The commission also suggested installing historical markers and opening that area to residents for recreational purposes.
In response, Bryan Balicki, project manager from Furrow Engineering in Westfield, stated in a Dec. 27 letter that revised plans submitted to the city identify the remaining section of the canal and list the area on plans as a “Do Not Disturb” area. He also indicates that the developer is agreeable to the commission’s suggestion on opening the space for recreation and installing historical markers.
Similarly, Balicki responded to the five-page letter submitted by Gerrit Stover, a longtime volunteer conservation adviser for the trust. Among Stover’s concerns was that no historical or archeological survey or records search was performed, “even though most of the site has lain undisturbed except for farming since the 18th century.” Much like the Historical Commission, Stover cited concerns for the canal, as well as concern for potential Indigenous presence.
“The known hunting area located at Park Hill just to the northwest, the location not far downstream of the native village of Pascommuck (displaced by the colonial settlers of Easthampton), and the site’s easy water access to the Connecticut River all increase the likelihood that this site was significant,” he wrote.
In his Dec. 27 response, Balicki said that the project has been reviewed by the Historical Commission and that the location of the canals have been added to the revised plans.
In an interview with the Gazette, Marty Klein, a longtime member of the Pascommuck Conservation Trust’s board, said he appreciated the responses and changes were made, including moving buildings away from areas that the trust considers to be “critical environmental areas,” but felt that there is still more to find out about the project.
“The trust is a dedicated group of concerned citizens who are working together and independently to challenge the developer to come up with something that will make a positive statement about us. This is the gateway to Easthampton and the last commercial area before you hit housing. We deserve something that is going to make a positive statement about the city,” he said.
Klein, who called the proposed development’s name “ridiculous,” said that he and the trust support building up the city’s affordable housing stock, but question if the site is the best fit with its potential environmental impacts as well as the already heavy flow of traffic through the Route 10 corridor. He also urged residents to pack the room on Jan. 3 even if they don’t intend to comment as their presence is important on such a large scale project.
“We need to challenge the developers to create something here that people in the future will look at and say, ‘What a wonderful place’ and not, ‘What the hell were they thinking?’” he said.
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
Southeast Catawba County is on track to add more than 300 new housing units following a rezoning by the Catawba County Board of Commissioners on Monday.
The board also voted to tweak the zoning for an already-approved project along Lake Norman to reflect the developer’s plans to downsize the project.
Commissioners were set to consider yet another rezoning for a 141-home project on West Maiden Road. However, the developer has requested that the hearing be pushed back and the board will now take it up on Nov. 21.
Here’s a look at some of the board’s recent zoning actions as well as the project the board is expected to consider next month:
Hathaway at Lake Norman
Commissioners voted to rezone five parcels of land totaling nearly 31 acres to make way for 354 housing units and a combined 42,500 square feet of commercial space in two buildings for a development known as Hathaway at Lake Norman.
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The land is off East N.C. Highway 150 a few miles from the interchange with N.C. Highway 16. One of the four pieces of property in question is the location of Howard’s Furniture and Decorating Center.
Rick Porter & Gross Residential Buildings is the company which sought the rezoning from residential to planned development.
Under the new zoning, the developers will be able to pursue higher-density development at the property, which is in a watershed protected area, according to agenda documents.
Developers have said they will implement stormwater controls that will “address the first one inch of rainfall,” according to the agenda document. There will also be a 100-foot buffer from nearby Reed Creek.
The developers have also committed to conducting a Traffic Impact Analysis and meeting any requirements specified by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The commercial space could be used for a variety of different businesses and operations, from daycare centers, doctor’s offices and funeral homes to restaurants, microbreweries or a liquor store.
Two uses are expressly prohibited for the commercial area: churches and other places of worship and body modification businesses.
D.R. Horton project
One matter the commissioners did not vote on this week was a rezoning request from D.R. Horton for a 141-home project on West Maiden Road.
However, the company asked that its request be moved to Nov. 21. The company is asking to rezone 49 acres of property from 321-Economic Development Industrial to residential.
The company plans to build 141 homes on 7,000-square-foot lots with 20-foot front and rear setbacks and side setbacks of 10 feet, according to agenda documents. Development plans also call for two stormwater ponds and nearly 14 acres of open space.
Developers have also indicated they soon plan to apply for annexation into the town of Maiden, according to agenda documents.
The Catawba County Planning Board rejected the rezoning proposal, with six members voting against recommending approval to the county commissioners and three voting in favor of recommending approval.
Among other things, the planning board cited concerns about the proximity of the property to the Martin Marietta quarry, which is adjacent to the property Horton is seeking to develop.
Steve Bruce, the regional vice president and general manager of the quarry, wrote a letter to Catawba County Assistant Planning Director Laurie LoCicero asking that the county require the developer to inform prospective residents of the quarry and its activities.
“Martin Marietta is committed to being a responsible neighbor and has a history of mutual cooperation with our residential neighbors at this site and others throughout the country,” Bruce added.
While the planning board has come out against the plans, county staff recommended approval, saying the project complies with the county’s Unified Development Ordinance, among other factors.
Midway Marina Modifications
Commissioners also took action this week to approve changes to plans for the Midway Marina by Lake Norman.
The board had previously zoned the 57 acres along East N.C. Highway 150, Greenwood Road and Clement Circle to planned development to include the marina area and space for commercial and residential development.
The effect of rezoning is to lessen the intensity of development on the land. When commissioners first voted on the planned development in 2020, developers were allowed to build up to 641 homes, 247,000 square feet of commercial space and 310 boat slips.
Under the revised zoning approved earlier this week, those totals were reduced to 491 homes, 70,000 square feet of commercial space and 200 boat slips.
Kevin Griffin is the City of Hickory reporter at the Hickory Daily Record.
ROXBURY TWP. – Some 20 years ago, then-Mayor Drew Cullen said he expected the Howard Boulevard corridor in Roxbury Township to one day be the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg.
If that’s true, and following what became more than two decades of clean-up and remediation on the 1,200 acre Hercules tract on Howard Boulevard, where gunpowder was manufactured for more than 100 years, the first goose may have just stepped up to the plate.