Zoning board holds first meeting of new year
Page 4 • Wednesday, January 29, 2014 • The Hammonton Gazette
ZONING, from Page 1
ing board were sworn in by board solicitor
Michael Malinsky. the new members are
Nicholas Polito, John adolf, ryan Mayer,
fred Melendez and anthony C. DeMarco.
the officers for the 2014 calendar year
were nominated and voted on by the members of the board. the chairman will remain
Gaetano J. Matro. the vice chairman is
William Brinkerhoff, while the board solicitor is Michael Malinsky and the non-recording secretary is Michael Messina. the board
engineer is robert Vettese, the board planner
is Kevin Dixon and the board secretary is
Patricia Berenato.
after the officers were named for 2014,
Berenato took roll call for the first time with
the new members assembled and elected officers and appointments in place.
the use variance application was presented to the board after the reorganizational
portion of the meeting concluded. Jonathan
Lee represented the Scipione’s, as he is familiar with the installation of solar array systems. Lee spoke about what the applicants
were looking to do on their South first road
residence.
“He [John Scipione] owns solar systems,
and he is looking to put another one in his
backyard. He owns a considerable amount
of land in his backyard. the challenge is he
can’t put the solar system on the roof of his
house because he has these trees, so we were
proposing to put a ground-mounted system.
it is a system that will track the sun, and it
would move laterally with the sun.
it is a system that is manufactured
in Vermont,” Lee said.
Scipione would like to install the
ground-mounted solar system in the
backyard of his home. it would not
be visible from the street, and possibly only on a side angle could people view it, Lee said.
“it would be approximately 300
feet from the street, and it is a variance application because it needs to
be situated on the ground,” Lee said.
Lee explained that the benefit of
the tracker is that it is mounted on a
single pole, and all the electronics
are high. the tracker is about eight
feet off the ground. to obtain any
electrical devices on the tracker, individuals would need to use a ladder, he said.
there was a question about the
height of the tracker in a letter sent
to the applicants from the engineers,
according to Lee. He said there
would be moments in the day where
the tracker is at “a very severe
angle.”
“the top edge of the panel could
be above the required 15 feet, but
the majority of the time the tracker
will be at a lower angle so that the
top edge technically wouldn’t be
above 15 feet…the moments where
it will be above are early in the
morning and late at night. at night,
the tracker goes flat,” Lee said.
Lee discussed in further detail
that there would be some sun reflection from the tracker because it
would be moving throughout the
day. it would be in increments as the
tracker tracks every seven minutes,
but the land owner explained it
wouldn’t affect neighboring properties.
“i have trees surround the whole
area and i have another 300 feet behind it of wooded areas, so it is almost impossible for [the sun
reflection from the tracker] to hit
any house that surrounds us,” Scipione said.
the board raised some questions
about safety issues with the applicants, but they assured them there is
a safety feature that will prevent any
potential hazards.
“there is a safety feature with the
Hot Soups!
at Trina’s
10 Central Ave.
561-2648
wind. the tracking feature is guided by
GPS. the tracker also has a wind anemometer attached to the top of it. if there is a sustained gust greater than 30 miles per hour,
then the tracker will go flat,” Lee said.
Scipione has a three-acre solar site at his
out-of-town business and explained that
there is no sound ever created from the wind,
unless it is at an extreme rate. He said other
neighbors have solar array systems installed
on their property as well, and it causes no
danger or nuisance.
“if the wind is high you don’t hear anything. the same thing goes for my neighbors, they have solar systems and you don’t
hear it from any of them. there solar systems are on the ground, and actually on plain
view of the street,” Scipione said.
town planner Kevin Dixon provided his
report to the board. Dixon stated it is a Dvariance and the solar system is a permitted
use, but the configuration that is permitted
is roof top only. Ground-mounted solar arrays are not permitted in residential districts.
“the applicant has provided testimony in
respect to the configuration of the system, as
well as the height of the tracker. the board
is evaluating the D-variance to allow the
system to be mounted on the ground as opposed to on the roof. as it is a D-variance,
the applicant’s responsibility is to demonstrate basically the positives and the negatives,” Dixon said.
Dixon went on to say that the solar array
system would not be visible from the road-
way and the property is surrounded by trees.
the applicant satisfied the board with
demonstrating the safety features of the system.
Board solicitor Michael Malinsky read the
variance details and asked for the board to
make a decision on the use variance application.
the members of the board unanimously
voted “yes” to approve the application. the
motion was carried. the meeting concluded
with the adoption of the resolution of Bellevue Properties LLC. Wawa food Market
and fuel Station use variance application
that was denied at the December 19 meeting.
the next Hammonton zoning Board of
adjustment meeting is scheduled for february 27.
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