Developer Forefront Power proposes 26-acre solar lease to Central York SD, estimates $78,000 a year in rent

Forefront Power representatives proposed leasing about 26 acres of Central York School District land to build two ground-mounted solar arrays, offering the district $3,000 per acre in the first year and an annual 2% escalation.

The proposal matters because it would produce recurring lease revenue for the district while requiring no capital outlay from the school district: Forefront said it would cover development, permitting, operation, maintenance and decommissioning costs and would run an option-to-lease due‑diligence period before any long-term lease.

Armand Shikori, a sales associate at Forefront Power, said the company initially identified two district-owned parcels and narrowed the proposal to a maintenance-area parcel with two buildable footprints. Victoria Maroney, who manages Forefront Power’s Pennsylvania distributed solar portfolio, said engineers estimate a combined 5-megawatt footprint split as a 2-MW northern site (~11 acres) and a 3-MW southern site (~15 acres). Maroney added that the utility maximum interconnection at this scale is 3 megawatts, so the firm would structure the work as two separate projects if both move forward.

Forefront outlined commercial terms the company said it would seek in an option and lease: an initial three-year due‑diligence option (during which Forefront would make quarterly due‑diligence payments and perform surveys, geotechnical work and interconnection studies), followed by a 25‑year lease and a typical five‑year extension (30 years total). Forefront’s materials cited a $3,000 per‑acre rate on roughly 26 acres as producing about $78,000 in the first year, with the 2% annual escalator thereafter. The company said the largest development hurdles are interconnection with the local utility (Met-Ed) and permitting through Manchester Township.

District committee members pressed Forefront on multiple local concerns. A committee member noted that a parcel behind the high school is partly in a 100‑year floodplain, which Forefront’s engineer said would make development more costly and could complicate insurance. Committee members also raised long‑term land‑use concerns if the district needs to expand facilities; several said they worried a long lease could limit future school expansion. Forefront said the company commonly uses landscape buffers and can pare site size to reduce visual impacts adjacent to homes, and that decommissioning obligations are written into its leases so future owners are contractually responsible for removing equipment.

Forefront emphasized the company’s financing backing — Mitsui — and said the project would place power onto the local distribution grid rather than selling electricity directly to the district. Maroney described the proposal as a “front‑of‑the‑meter” interconnection: the district would receive lease payments and potential property‑tax revenue and could negotiate optional community benefits, but would not directly buy power from the array in the offered structure.

Committee members asked whether the district could later pursue a power purchase or behind‑the‑meter arrangement that would provide bill savings; Forefront said it can propose both models but had presented a simpler lease-first structure for initial consideration. Forefront also said it would work with the district on options if the district later wants to procure power or adjust the arrangement.

No formal action or vote occurred at the committee meeting; Forefront’s presentation concluded with the company offering to provide additional engineering, insurance and lease‑language details as the district requested. The committee did not commit to a site or authorize staff to execute documents during the meeting.

The presentation will be part of the record sent with the committee minutes; Forefront representatives said they are available for follow‑up meetings or further negotiations.