town’s solar array ordinance could be amended
Wednesday, December 19, 2018 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
SOLAR, from Page 1
for a hardship variance with the
town planning board. the board is
tasked with assessing the positive
and negative criteria associated
with allowing a ground mounted
solar array to be permitted in a res-
idential zoning district.
However, ever since state legis-
lation was passed in 2009 that cod-
ified the land use term “inherently
beneficial use,” which includes “a
wind, solar or photovoltaic energy
facility or structure,” it became dif-
ficult for the board to rule against
homeowners seeking to install
ground mounted solar arrays, ac-
cording to Schroeder.
also, because New Jersey has
utilized a Solar renewable energy
Credit (SreC) system for the past
several years to incentivize home-
owners to implement solar power,
solar arrays have been increasingly
popular. Consequently, hardship
variances for ground-mounted
solar arrays have become a com-
mon application for the planning
board to review, even though they
are almost always approved due to
the state laws supporting their use.
During the planning board’s
meeting on December 5, board so-
licitor James Schroeder that it may
be time for town council to revisit
and consider amending its solar
array ordinance due to the changes
that have taken place in the solar
industry and in the state legisla-
ture.
“a solar array is an inherently
beneficial use, which sets a very
high bar for saying ‘No’ to that …
So, what i think is happening is
that people are coming and making
good cases and the board is ruling
correctly. and in my opinion, it’s
triggering another responsibility of
the board, which is to advise
mayor and council when they feel
like ordinances are out of step with
what’s happening,” Schroeder said
in a phone interview with The
Gazette.
Schroeder said making residents
appear before the planning board
for a hardship variance that is es-
sentially a forgone conclusion is
unnecessary, both for them and the
board’s professionals like board
planner Kevin Dixon.
“Kevin and i have to pay mort-
gages too, but i just feel like it’s
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unnecessary for them to have
Kevin go through his report every
time and bill the client. it’s unnec-
essary for them to have me write a
resolution and shoehorn all these
ideas in when they’re doing this to
save money. Let’s do something
good for the people if we can,”
Schroeder said at the December 5
meeting.
Dixon suggested that the board
consider recommending council to
classify a ground-mounted solar
array as a conditional use with
clearly defined negative criteria,
which will prevent the prolifera-
tion of ground-mounted solar ar-
rays despite their inherently
beneficial use.
“if you define the negative im-
pacts, then that offsets the inher-
ently beneficial positive criteria.
and if you define what those neg-
ative impacts are and outline them
as conditions that have to be met,
then they automatically can’t meet
the negative criteria and they don’t
even qualify for a use variance at
that point,” Dixon said on Decem-
ber 5.
Board member Jonathan Oliva
said establishing firm parameters
on what is a permitted ground-
mounted solar array would elimi-
nate the need for applicants to
appear before the board and pay
the costs of land use application
fees.
“if we set specific width, depth,
height guidelines to whatever it
is—setback guidelines—to this,
they would be administratively ap-
proved. they would have to work
within those guidelines, and then,
at that point, if they exceeded those
guidelines and then the neighbor
came in and said, ‘Hey, i’ve got
this problem,’ well, then it’s on our
code enforcement to make sure
that we’re going to go out and
we’re going to actually police
this,” Oliva said during the De-
cember 5 meeting.
the board will continue to dis-
cuss the matter during its next
meeting on December 19. in the
meantime, Dixon sought permis-
sion to write a memo that summa-
rizes his office’s concerns
regarding the current solar array
ordinance, as well as his under-
standing of the board’s concerns
about the issue, which he said
could result in the proliferation of
ground-mounted solar arrays in
residential zoning districts if coun-
cil doesn’t reassess the way it han-
dles these applications.
“if they continue to get ap-
proved, there will be a tipping
point where it will appear to have
proliferated right under our noses
because they’ve all been approved
up to a point where we’re starting
to see them in everybody’s yard,
everywhere we go, and we don’t
want to get there,” Dixon said on
December 5.
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