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Planning Board schedules May 20 compliance hearing and authorizes stop-work powers over Nute's Solar site
Summary
After reviewing third‑party engineering reports documenting erosion-control failures and silt discharges, the Planning Board authorized staff to pursue enforcement actions up to a stop‑work order and scheduled a compliance hearing for May 20, 2026, requiring four deliverables from the applicant.
The Farmington Planning Board on April 15 authorized staff, working with legal counsel, to pursue code-enforcement actions including a stop-work order if necessary, and scheduled a compliance hearing for May 20, 2026, to address alleged violations at the Nute's Solar construction site.
Chairman Rick Pelkey summarized inspection reports from the Town’s third-party engineer, Tighe & Bond (represented by Dennis Moran). The reports documented what staff characterized as progressive deterioration of site controls: perimeter erosion controls inconsistent with the approved plans, piecemeal stump-grinding berms and intermittent silt fence used as inadequate substitutes, and evidence that silt-laden water had discharged into wetlands and sensitive areas. The most recent inspection noted roughly 84 acres of the site remained unstabilized, with only about 9 acres under temporary stabilization and the roads representing much of the permanently stabilized area.
Planning Board members said the documented conditions and repeated warnings to the applicant warranted immediate authority for staff to act, rather than waiting weeks for a hearing. Selectmen's Representative Charlie King urged empowering staff to take interim actions deemed necessary — including code enforcement measures up to a stop-work order — limiting on-site activity to remedial stabilization only. Member Stephen Henry supported a stop-work order conditioned on remediation steps before new work could resume; Member Jerry DeLemus urged firm consequences if the owner fails to correct violations.
The Board voted 6-0 to: authorize staff (with legal counsel) to pursue enforcement actions up to and including a stop-work order; require the applicant to cease any new work with on-site work limited to remedial stabilization; schedule a special compliance hearing for May 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM; and require the applicant to present four deliverables identified by the Town’s engineer: (1) a comprehensive site stabilization plan; (2) a phasing and construction sequencing plan; (3) infiltration and basin performance verification; and (4) an updated inspection and reporting protocol. Planning staff noted that all notification costs for the hearing will be charged to the applicant.
The Board further advised that if the applicant remains noncompliant after the hearing the Board may rescind the site-plan approval.
