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Winthrop tightens solar rules, caps future large ground-mount projects at six
Summary
The council adopted planning-board-proposed changes to the town's solar-energy ordinance that require electrical plans and leases on file, a construction monitoring plan, a 12-month start rule, a 50-foot native evergreen buffer, and a cap on large ground-mount approvals reduced to six.
Winthrop's Town Council on July 6 adopted amendments to the town's solar-energy ordinance that add documentation and site-protection requirements and cap the number of large ground-mounted solar approvals.
Greg (planning-board representative) told the council the board updated the ordinance to require that applicants submit full electrical plans and a copy of lease agreements to the town as part of the record. The planning board also added a phased construction and monitoring plan and a 12-month substantial-start provision: if a project has not reached the town's definition of substantial start (30%) within 12 months, the approval must be re-reviewed.
The updated rules treat solar arrays as impervious cover for the purpose of impervious-area calculations; they require a 50-foot vegetated buffer of native evergreen plantings that have a normal mature height of about 25 feet, and they restrict trimming below that canopy height. The board also proposed—and the council approved—a numeric cap on the number of large ground-mount solar projects the town will approve, reducing the practical new-approval ceiling to six (the ordinance preserves the status of already-approved projects but limits future additions once the cap is reached).
Planning-board and council members said the changes aim to protect shoreland and water resources, ensure decommissioning funds and monitoring are on file, and avoid extended permitted-but-dormant approvals. "If at 12 months they haven't had a substantial start... they have to come back to the planning board to get reapproved," a planning-board member explained during the hearing.
The council voted to adopt the ordinance changes and waived the second reading. The planning board and staff will implement the amended submittal checklist and update permit-review procedures to reflect the new requirements.
