By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Gibraltar Rock Quarry officials will be back with a revised plan to put thousands of solar panels on the East Mountain Road property — perhaps by the Sept. 13 Planning Board meeting, a company official said Tuesday.
A proposal by the quarry and KDC Solar was withdrawn after a July 10 meeting with lawyers and leaders of the Sourland Planning Council, a regional non-profit whose goal is to protect the ecosystem on the Sourland Mountain. The group estimated that 2,800 trees would be cut for the project.
Uday Patankar, vice president for environmental and public affairs, said Gibraltar would “explore all alternatives” to locating an array of solar panels intended to supply 2.3 megawatts of electricity to run the quarrying operation.
The withdrawn plan called for about 10,000 three-by-six-foot panels on 14 acres of the mining operation to the north of Route 601 and off Long Hill Road. Another six acres would be cleared of trees in order not to avoid shading of the panels.
Mr. Pantakar said the company would investigate the feasibility of placing the solar panels on other, possibly more open, places on the 750-acre generally wooded site. He said the company would explore the possibility of putting the panels on a waste filings pile of byproduct crushed rock created and left by the previous owner, 3M Company. That highly visible grassy hump was inherited by Gibraltar when it bought the site in June 2009.
He said the company had doubted whether the filings pile was sufficiently stable to accept the foundations and earthwork that would be needed to support the panels. The company had also hoped it could find a commercial use for the granular material.
Mr. Pantakar didn’t rule out the possibility that some trees would have to come down to accommodate a new plan. KDC and Gibraltar were seeking a exemption to allow them to cut down more trees than normally permitted, and pay into a compensatory township fund for planting of trees in other parts of the township, like parks or open space.
The Sourland Planning Council had hired an attorney, Michele Donato of Lavallette?, as well as an engineer and a forester, said Cliff Wilson, the council’s president.
Mr. Wilson said the July 10 meeting “was a frank and cordial exchange of ideas and information.” The SPC discussed what it thought were weaknesses in the application, and Gibraltar and KDC explained why they rejected some of the sites that the SPC thought would be more suitable, particularly the 63-acre “fines” pile.
Mr. Wilson said Gibraltar the next day they notified Ms. Donato “that they would relocate the array to a non-forested section of their property,” although he said details should come from the applicants.
Both Mr. Wilson and Ms. Donato said they were pleased that Gibraltar co-owner John Silvi attended the meeting “and was willing to change direction and relocate the array at this late date,” said Mr. Wilson.
A change in plans will mean additional expense “but the decision removes a huge hurdle on the path to Planning Board approval and demonstrates the two companies’ responsiveness to environmental concerns. It’s a good business decision for Gibraltar and good for the Sourlands, as well,” said Mr. Wilson.
”The Sourland Planning Council is strongly in favor of solar energy, and so we are thrilled that the quarry will be generating all of its electricity with this technology without cutting down forest,” said Mr. Wilson.
Ms. Donato said, “I’m a firm believer in solar is absolutely essential, especially when compared to nuclear power. But I don’t think solar panels belong on prime agricultural land or on the side of a mountain.”
At the first Planning Board hearing May 2, KDC engineer Mark Lukasik presented an overview of the application. KDC and Gibraltar were to submit more detailed information on water runoff in advance of a reopened hearing on June 14, which wound up being postponed.
At the May hearing, people who live near the 750-acre quarry off Long Hill and Dutchtown-Zion roads asked questions and gave their own idea of how water would flow off a partially deforested hillside. The asked how it would affect roads, existing streams and ditches, and affect water recharge for private homes’ wells.
KDC Solar, of Bedminster, proposed to lease the land and install the panels, and then sell power back to Gibraltar. They said the goal is to meet all the quarry’s energy needs — about 2.3 megawatts — not to feed back into the wider regional energy grid.
In that way, the array qualified as a permitted accessory use, not as a separate commercial enterprise.
KDC planned to offer testimony from a forester, an executive in the company and an environmental consultant.
KDC would install about 10,000 solar panels in a rough trapezoid shape in the southern area of the 750-acre quarry, near the Hillsborough-Montgomery township line. It would cut down trees for the array installation, and another 6 acres of surrounding trees in order to avoid shading and having pieces of 100-foot-high trees fall on the panels.

