BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON — A proposed project to build Canton’s first commercial solar power installation will be scrutinized by the town attorney and an outside engineering firm before a final site plan moves any closer to approval by the planning board.

The town planning board is serving as the lead municipal agency on the project.

The board held an online meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19 to once again review site plan details from U.S. Light Energy which is proposing the construction of an approximately 33-acre facility off the abandoned Janes Road (with an official address of 161 Meade Road), next door to Boyden Brooks Body Works and the Rose property. The proposed 5 MW project, engineered by Chazen Companies, has come before the board in October and last month. A preliminary site plan was reviewed by the county planning board in November and subsequently sent back to the developers for more work.

Pam and Jim Rose, who own Boyden Brooks, reside adjacent to the site in question owned by Brian Brewer who plans to lease the acreage to the company for the solar farm. The couple have voiced strong concerns and opposition to the project which will wrap around one side and behind their property and require the company to use a right-of-way across their front yard to access the site and reroute generated power out of the farm to the Little River substation. The couple’s concerns include ambient noise from the inverters which would be at the site, the proposed foliage screen around their property and use of the right-of-way.

Questions about the legal ownership and extent of the right-of-way are what town attorney Eric Gustafson will be reviewing. The planning board held off any action on site plan review until the attorney could review the deed paperwork and research what the right-of-way entails in this case.

The planning board also opted to have an independent engineering consultant, to be retained by the Town of Canton, review the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) Act form submitted by the company for the project. Due to the extent of the project and its complexity, some of which might involve reforestation and wetland development once the site plan is finalized, the SEQR form involved is quite extensive said planning board chairman Mike Morgan.

“Eric (Gustafson) has suggested we retain the services of an engineering firm to look at the SEQR and to make sure the project itself is acceptable to town code. We are looking for some expert eyes on this because quite frankly its over our heads,” Morgan said.

Morgan said the project would be turned over to an engineer once the town hires a firm. The cost of hiring the firm is to be covered by a fee paid by the developers to the town for hiring consultants or professional analysis of renewable energy projects. According to the town's solar energy law, the developers are slated to pay 1 percent of the $9 million project cost. However, the details of who accepts that fee are still being hashed out between U.S. Light Energy and the town, Morgan said at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the company was charged last month by the planning board to confer with the Roses on the proposed site plan to look at some of their concerns. At the planning board meeting Jan. 19, Mark Richardson with U.S. Light Energy said revised proposals for the site plan had been submitted to the Roses for review and comment and the company was waiting for responses.

Morgan advised the couple to consider the documents and changes proposed by the company and respond so the process of site plan review could move forward.

The board is slated to meet again to discuss the project and look at a more complete site plan on Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. The town attorney’s analysis of the right-of-way and the independent engineering review are expected to be complete at that time.