Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Site Plan Approval topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning board approves middle-school solar canopies with 10 p.m. lights-out condition
Summary
The Hamilton Planning Board approved a site plan from Select Energy Development LLC for solar canopies in the middle-school parking lot, conditioning exterior canopy lights to be extinguished at 10:00 p.m. subject to a manual override by the school district and requiring coordination of fixture locations.
The Hamilton Planning Board voted June 16 to approve a site plan from Select Energy Development LLC for solar canopies in the middle-school parking lot, attaching conditions on lighting and installation.
The board’s approval follows a continued hearing in which members reviewed the applicant’s photometric plan and asked for details about how canopy lighting fixtures would be mounted and coordinated with structural columns. The applicant said it would coordinate fixture locations and provided on-grade foot-candle numbers the board had requested.
“I think it’s important that we have some time periods outlined in our conditions,” the chair said, and the board ultimately agreed that canopy lighting should be extinguished at 10:00 p.m., with a manual override available to the Hamilton Minam School District for bona fide events.
Angie Rowe, an abutter at 821 Bay Road, thanked the applicant and asked that lights be extinguished (not merely dimmed) at night. She also requested that an existing, unshielded woodshed light in the northwest corner be converted to a shielded facade fixture of 3,000 kelvins or less and with much lower lumen output to avoid glare into nearby homes. “I would ask that… the lights be extinguished at that time,” Rowe said.
Board members said the woodshed fixture lies outside the application and their conditioning authority; the board can request but not compel that change, and they noted the Dover-amendment limits on compelling school-district property changes. The chair confirmed the final condition language would allow the school district a manual override for events and would require the applicant to coordinate fixture mounting to avoid conflicts with canopy columns.
A motion to approve the site plan “with the conditions as stated in this hearing” was moved by Jonathan Poor and seconded by the chair; the board voted in favor and approved the project.
What happens next: the applicant will implement the approved site plan under the board’s conditions and coordinate final fixture placement with town staff and the school district. The board noted the request regarding the existing woodshed light will be recorded in the minutes for the applicant and school district to consider.
