By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — The people sitting on the local planning board brought to light some ideas for a future solar ordinance.

One of the suggestions was breaking up large solar array farms by requiring tree buffers or limiting the number of acres that can be dedicated to a single solar farm. 

On Monday night, the Casco Planning Board discussed what might be included in a proposed solar ordinance. The timeline to complete such an ordinance would most likely be structured so that it could be a presented as a warrant article at annual town meeting in June.

Casco Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) John Wiesemann asked the board members what they might like to see in such an ordinance.

As an example, he mentioned that the Town of Naples has an ordinance that states the solar equipment cannot be seen from any body of water.

Planning Board member Ryan McAllister said that his ideas included what residents have said to him about solar energy projects.

“Having buffer zones between panels so you don’t have 120 acres. You have to have a 40-or 50-foot strip of woods between the arrays. Increase the setback of buffer from the road,” he said. 

Many townspeople support the idea of solar energy but are concerned about changing the landscape of Casco, especially as it can be seen from major roadways, he said.

“We have a fair amount of support for the fields but at the same time they don’t want to see the fields when they drive through town,” McAllister said. 

During a recent trip to East Conway, he drove through Fryeburg and was shocked at the size of the solar farm there. He added size limitations to the list of items to look at when writing up a solar ordinance. 

“If putting in solar field, less than 75 acres to keep the town from being chunked up,” he said.

Planning Board member Stan Buchanan agreed with keeping the solar farms smaller or requiring buffers. 

The ordinance should be specific about the types of buffers so that developers do not plant 1,000 pine trees. A solely pine tree buffer would not offer as much coverage would grow tall, and might potentially fall during a storm thus damaging equipment, he said.

CEO Wiesemann suggested that the planning board start holding workshops on a night that is different from regular meeting to discuss this ordinance as well as a couple others. The board landed on Tuesday as a good day of the week. The board decided to play it by ear, scheduling one workshop at a time.