Plans for a solar energy project on property owned by the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in Jackson will see a reduction in scale when the application goes before the Jackson Planning Board next week.
On Oct. 5, representatives of Maser Consulting came before the Jackson Environmental Commission to outline proposed changes to the solar energy project. The changes followed criticism from environmental groups in the wake of an initial plan for the project that was recently announced.
Project engineer C. Richard Roseberry said Six Flags executives now want to construct a solar energy facility on 66 acres off Reed Road, Jackson.
Six Flags owns the 130-acre tract on which the project is proposed. The property is adjacent to the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area.
“This reduction (from a 90- acre project) is the result of conversations and meetings between KDC Solar, Six Flags and environmental groups,” Roseberry said.
Six Flags representatives said KDC Solar will own, maintain and operate the solar arrays. According to Roseberry, the remainder of the 130-acre property has been designated as wetlands and will remain untouched. He said the smaller project will include the construction of solar energy panels at a 4.5-acre parking lot that is used by Six Flags employees.
The parking lot solar arrays were given the green light, officials said, after the Township Council amended an ordinance that allowed for the construction of solar panels in the theme park’s parking lots.
Initially, Six Flags officials announced that the solar energy project would require the deforestation of more than 90 acres at the Reed Road property. The electricity generated by the solar array would be used by the theme park, according to park executives.
The planned deforestation quickly drew the ire of environmental groups.
Opponents of the solar energy plan as it was initially presented said barred owls and the northern pine snake, which are protected native species, live on the property. They also said the tract in- cludes environmentally sensitive areas, the headwaters for two environmentally significant streams, and steep slopes, the alteration of which could have a negative impact on the surrounding area.
To assuage some of those concerns and not run afoul of Jackson’s tree removal ordinance, landscape architect Gustave De- Blasio said the plan is to replace the trees that are cut down to make room for the solar panels by planting trees throughout the 2,200 acres that are owned by Six Flags.
“We still plan to do a lot of research regarding some particular areas where the replanting will occur,” he said.
Over a span of seven years, DeBlasio said, the theme park will plant 2,975 trees while monitoring the efficacy of each year’s replacement.
“We talked about making an analysis of what we plant each year to see how it is adapting and what the survival rate is to supplement the replacement as we move forward,” DeBlasio said. “We are going to work with the board in order to provide the necessary vegetation to supplement the removal of the trees” from the Reed Road property.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the members of the Environmental Commission unanimously voted to request the Planning Board to hold a public hearing on the Six Flags solar energy project on Oct. 19.