Reaction to Ammendolia Vote: Keep Your Hands Off Our Garden

In the wake of the selectmen's decision that there are no other parcels of town-owned land that are "clearly superior" and "readily available" on which to erect an array of solar panels, neighbors of one of the parcels are not stopping their campaign to focus on other sites.

Following the dictates of Article 64 at the spring Town Meeting, the board had to decide if the two sites were the only ones appropriate for the panels: the wastewater treatment plant or the Ammendolia farm land on Old Bedford Road.

There are problems with the wastewater treatment plant site, especially with its useable acreage, but the hearing last week at which the board voted was most vociferous in opposition to the Ammendolia land off Old Bedford Road.

The East Quarter Community Garden is there, where backyard gardeners say an entire community has grown up of about 100 people who are using the plots to grow food and interact with each other. They have set up an irrigation system so that even during the summer drought, they had crops to pick.

Old Bedford Road resident Dick Fahlander was among the most vocal, asking why the selectmen would consider the Ammendolia land, in back of his property, after all the compromises he has made to accommodate town building.

He said he feels he has been kept in the dark about the town plans for months.

"As it has been throughout this process, I haven't officially heard anything," said Fahlander in an email after the hearing. "Given the selectmen's comments at the hearing I assume that the Ammendolia option is lights out (so to speak). I continue to be perplexed that such a poorly conceived plan went to public bid with no input from the selectmen, other town boards or concerned citizens."

The ad hoc solar committee was charged with evaluating all town-owned parcels of five acres or more, and it found that the two sites in Article 46 were the most appropriate for various reasons including use restrictions, proximity of houses, wetlands boundaries and others.

The local conservation group, Concord CAN, or Climate Action Network, issued a statement saying the Ammendolia land should be preserved in its natural state.

"The Concord Climate Action Network (ConcordCAN) wishes to express its opposition to the use of the Ammendolia Land on Old Bedford Road for use as a solar PV generating facility," the group stated in a widely circulated letter.

"Concord CAN is generally enthusiastic in endorsing the development of renewable energy sources like ground-based solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays for electricity. However, renewable energy projects should never be considered in isolation from other needs," the letter stated.

Concord CAN backed the use of the Ammendolia land for agriculture.

"The Ammendolia land, despite early reports to the contrary, has been shown by dozens of community gardeners and a local commercial farmer to be a flourishing source of local food and a nexus of community involvement. To sacrifice this vital resource in favor of a very modest source of electricity would be a step backward in energy management and sustainability.  The Ammendolia Land's best and highest use is as it is used today:  for producing food," Concord CAN said. It also encourages conservation as the "first fuel."

Local sustainable energy enthusiast David Allen opined that the town's governance should have stopped the process and fought to preserve the Ammendolia land.

"It makes me really wonder what is behind the town's push to move this solar project along so fast," Allen said on his website: www.concord-trustingtheprocess.org. "Is the light plant really reaching it's peak capacity? Is it that they will lose solar financial incentives if they do not act quickly? Their use of the term "readily available" implies that there is some urgency. Does anyone have a good understanding of what this urgency is?"

Selectmen voiced support for using the 30-acre landfill, but permitting could take up to five years, Town Manager Chris Whelan said.