HILLSBOROUGH: Thursday’s solar panel hearing postponed

   Gibraltar Rock Quarry hasn’t met its deadline to submit a revised plan for solar panels on the Sourland Mountain in time for Thursday night’s Planning Board meeting.
   As a result, the hearing on the application has been postponed indefinitely, said Planner Robert Ringelheim. When a new plan is submitted and a meeting scheduled, property owners within 200 feet of the quarry will be sent new notices, he said.
   In July, the quarry and KDC Solar withdrew an application that would have placed about 10,000 three-by-six-foot panels on 14 acres of the mining operation to the north of Route 601 (East Mountain Road) and off of Long Hill Road.
   The plan could have meant the removal of another six acres of trees to prevent shading and storm damage to the panels.
   The application was opposed by the Sourland Planning Council, an environmental non-profit, which said the plan could have meant the loss of 2,800 trees on the south-facing hillside. In July, the council hired an attorney, Michele Donato of Lavalette. Gibraltar withdrew the application after a meeting with Ms. Donato and the non-profit group.
   Uday Pantakar, vice president for environmental and public affairs, said the company was taking “a long and hard look” at alternate places on the 750-acre site, which quarries stone for road and paving construction. Finding a new location for the panels was taking a longer than originally envisioned,” he said.
   The goal, he said, was “the least amount of disturbance of trees,” he said.