The Cranston City Plan Commission approved the preliminary plan for the Natick Solar project after prolonged public comment and technical exchanges with the applicant.

The commission voted to approve the application with conditions that require the applicant to secure all necessary DEM (Department of Environmental Management) permits before the commission will approve a final plan, to provide proof of insurance covering blasting activities, and to adhere to a package of blasting and monitoring rules intended to limit risks to nearby residents and to the Tennessee Gas/Kinder Morgan pipeline. The applicant also must provide notice to properties within 500 feet at least 14 days before any controlled blasting and shall offer pre- and post-blast surveys to abutters within that radius.

Why it matters: Natick Solar would use about 28.7 acres of a roughly 64-acre parcel to install ground-mounted solar arrays, a scale that neighbors said will change the neighborhood character and raise concerns about noise, wells and wetlands. Commissioners said they were constrained by earlier court findings about vesting but exercised their authority to place conditions intended to reduce neighborhood harms.

The applicant’s team — led in the hearing by attorney Robert Murray and energy firm representatives including Ryan Palumbo — repeatedly told the commission the project team has coordinated with utility and regulatory stakeholders and would accept site-specific conditions. “We offered to the commission an additional condition that, in the course of approval of this plan, we would not object to an additional condition of no blasting within 200 feet of the gas pipeline,” Murray said during his presentation.

The commission’s approved conditions (read into the record) included: a prohibition on blasting within 200 feet of the Tennessee Gas/Kinder Morgan pipeline; a limited daily blasting window (a two-hour window around midday, recorded in the decision as 11 a.m.–1 p.m.); a ban on blasting on weekends and holidays; proof of insurance that specifically covers blasting-related liabilities; advance notice by phone and electronic message to properties within 500 feet and to the planning department and constituent services; an offer of pre- and post-blast condition surveys to affected abutters; submission of a DEM stormwater and wetlands permit before final-plan approval; annual landscaping inspections for the anticipated 30-year life of the project; and an escrow to guarantee plantings adjusted to $42,000 to account for inflation (the original $35,000 in 2021 was inflation-adjusted by the commission).

Neighbors and residents repeatedly said the record of previous construction and blasting in other projects in the region has caused damage, long-lasting wetland impacts, and extended noise and dust. Multiple speakers described prior blasting experiences and urged the commission to either deny the plan or add stringent conditions. The commission closed public comment, deliberated, and then moved to approve the preliminary plan with the enumerated conditions; Vice President Coop moved the approval and Director Carrero seconded it.

Next steps: The applicant must secure the DEM permits and satisfy the listed conditions before the commission (or staff per the conditions agreed) will entertain final-plan approval. The commission retained the ability to require that significant changes return to the commission for public review.

Note on record names: the meeting transcript includes two spellings for the chair’s name ("Steve Fryes" and "Steven Frias"). The article uses the spelling given by the chair when he introduced himself at the start of the meeting.