Committee Finishing Work on Solar Ordinance

The sun may finally be setting on the Bedminster Township Committee’s discussion of an ordinance regulating the installation of solar panels in the township.

For the third consecutive meeting, the committee dedicated most of its time Monday to working out the final details of an ordinance that may be introduced next month.

Most of the discussion on Monday centered around whether solar canopies in parking lots should be allowed in commercial areas of the PUD zone, like the Hills Village Shopping Center and the nearby offices.

While Mayor Steven Parker was in favor of allowing the canopies, other committee members were opposed.

Committeewoman Carolyn Freeman, a Hills resident, said she would not like to see the canopies in the parking lot of the shopping center.

“They’re not really appealing,” she said, adding that the parking lot is close to residential areas. “They should be put where they’re appropriate. I can’t imagine people will want to see parking lot canopies.”

Freeman also pointed out that the township regulates the size of signs and lighting at the shopping center, and has also required the parking lot to be landscaped.

But Parker said one of the goals of the ordinance is to encourage the use of solar power.

Committeeman Lawrence Jacobs said there is not much room on the roof of the shopping center because of heating and cooling units for the panels, nor are there grassy areas for ground-mounted panels.

“The only place left is the parking lot,” he said.

Parker said he was not in favor of creating design standards for the solar canopies.

“I don’t think we’re smart enough to be the decorating committee,” he said.

The committee agreed that if a landowner wanted to install a solar canopy over a parking lot in the zone, a variance from the land use board would be required.

“If they want a variance and nobody comes in to protest, they will probably get a variance,” committeeman Bernie Pane said.

Parker also pushed for allowing the solar canopies in parking lots in the PRD zone, which includes the clubhouses and recreational areas in The Hills. He said the issue should be decided by the various homeowners associations in The Hills who have their own design standards.

“But we tell the rest of town what to do,” Freeman said.

Payne said allowing the canopies in the zone would be “problematical on a number of levels,” including the possibility of a “rogue” neighborhood association or conflicts among neighborhood associations.

The township committee did accept Parker’s suggestion to make buffering requirements for ground-mounted solar arrays in the R-10 zone less specific. He said a previous draft’s standards may require too much and would be cost-prohibitive when the township is encouraging the use of solar energy.

Parker said he did not want to triple the price tag by requiring landowners to go to a landscape store.

The buffering around a solar installation will be reviewed by the land use board in its site plan approval processes in the future.      

A key part of the proposed ordinance would prohibit the construction of any solar facility that would produce electricity for use off the facility’s property. Committee members want to include in the ordinance a standard that solar panels could only generate 110 percent of the power required on the property.

That provision would essentially eliminate solar farms in the township, unless a variance is granted.

But the ordinance will have no impact on the controversial application before the township’s Land Use Board to construct a solar farm on the Kirby property on Country Club Road. That application by KDC Solar of Bedminster calls for the installation of a 55-acre, 49,000-panel industrial-scale solar power plant that would power only Sanofi-Aventis on Route 202/206 in Bridgewater.

The hearings on that project are scheduled to begin on May 2.

Ground-mounted solar panels will not be allowed in residential areas with smaller lot sizes, the officials decided. The ground-mounted panels will be allowed in the township’s R-10 zone, which calls for a minimum lot size of 10 acres, mostly in the western part of the township.

The ground-mounted panels will also be allowed in the R-3 zone, where lot sizes are at least three acres, and in the office zones in the Route 206 corridor.

The ground-mounted panels will be prohibited in all other zones, including the PUD zone which covers most of the Hills community and the shopping center on Hills Drive. Committee members previously expressed concerns that ground-mounted panels in residential neighborhoods would detract from the nature of the areas.