Springfield tackles solar regulations

By Amber Cox
    SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP – The Township Council was set to meet yesterday, Wednesday, to discuss an amendment to the Land Use ordinance to cover solar and wind energy installations.
    The 153-acre vacant Eastern Organic Resources property on Saylor’s Pond Road is one of the concerns because the owner is in the process of trying to put solar panels on the land.
    “It’s a private company and the township itself has no control over private companies, per se, and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been the prime director of the course of that business,” Deputy Mayor Peter Sobotka said Friday. “It is a non-issue. The state of New Jersey says that wind and solar panels are things that should occur in the state. We are trying to regulate as best we can, as a municipality, what comes into the township. They (Eastern Organics) have been in the process of shutting down and now they are in bankruptcy.”
    Mayor Denis McDaniel stated that the property was the cause of some issues a few years ago.
    “There was a bad problem out on that property for a few years in terms of the odor caused by their mulching and the council worked with the DEP and the public and we ýPage=001 Column=001 OK,0000.09þ
got it shut down,” Mr. McDaniel said. “That problem has been addressed and solved. It has been odor free now for at least a year, may two. But at some point the owners have to move forward.”
    Mr. Sobotka stated that the site received more complaints than any other site in New Jersey with an odor problem.
    “There is no plan with the Planning Board to change the designation from AR-10 (agricultural-residential),” Mr. Sobotka said. “It will remain an AR-10 and the ordinance is to regulate throughout the township. It’s not specific to that one site, but through the township.”
    The public hearing on Wednesday was set to discuss some of the changes on the Land Use ordinance that allow the township to regulate the use of solar and wind power installations.
    Suggestions that there is a plan to put a new dump or digester on the site, according to the mayor and deputy mayor, are not true. Also, anything that is put on the land will be taxed, just as every property is taxed.
    “The state of New Jersey controls how property taxes are assessed,” Mr. McDaniel said. “Frankly, I think it’s a work in progress. I think the state is revisiting the assessment options on solar and wind generation.”
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Mr. Sobotka described the area as being devastated.
    “It would be very difficult to put housing there because it is an AR-10 zone, because of what has occurred there,” he said. “Large amounts of ýPage=003 Column=003 OK,0013.04þ
earth have been moved around and you can see that they’ve cleaned up to a certain point, but there are still concrete pieces in the ground. It’s not really a very friendly place that you’d want to live on.”
    Mr. McDaniel questioned ýPage=003 Column=004 OK,0013.04þ
if people are against the idea of solar energy.
    “I don’t understand the objection to solar energy,” he said. “Are they against solar energy? Are they against solar energy for just one property? Do they have something against people that own this ýPage=003 Column=005 OK,0013.04þ
property? Most of the country thinks that solar energy is a good thing and it seems that we have some people in town that think solar energy is a bad thing. I don’t understand that.”
    Mr. McDaniel also said that if people are against solar energy because it doesn’t create enough revenue then they may be against farmers.
    “Farmers grow corn and corn doesn’t provide any revenue to the town, nor do soy beans, nor does livestock,” he said. “So the same reasoning would be that these people who are against solar energy are also against farming. If that’s the case, I suggest they are in the wrong town.”
    There is a possibility that the site will be able to sell the solar energy to the military base if they end up putting the power there.
    “If something is going to help our military is that in itself a bad thing?” Mr. Sobotka said. “I think that’s the important thing here. If in fact they do sell electricity to the military base I feel as Americans we should support our ýPage=003 Column=006 OK,0041.07þ
military and I think this is a very positive thing. If the military can be supported by this community, we have a large number of veterans here, we have a large number of totally disabled veterans in the township, and the base is something that America needs.”
    The zoning will apply across the whole town, it is not just for the Eastern Organics property.
    “It’s not generated by this property,” Mr. McDaniel said. “It’s generated by the state saying, solar and wind are good for the state of New Jersey. We want to foster green energy. So if you don’t have land ordinances that regulate such energy generators then you have no control at all. All this does is say OK, it is a good thing, but let’s regulate it so we don’t have negative impacts on our community. It’s not about one property.”
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Mr. McDaniel and Mr. Sobotka stated that the supposed plans for a new dump or digester wouldn’t make sense, they stopped all of that from occurring and don’t want it back.
    “What they had done before we don’t want repeated,” Mr. McDaniel said. “Again, that was out of our control and handled by the DEP that allowed that to occur, because they gave the permits to allow that to happen.”