Pamela Bland
West Amwell Township
Garden Solar has submitted an application to construct a solar field on land owned by West Amwell Mason Supply on the corner of Route 518 and Rock Road West Extension in West Amwell Township.
Garden Solar’s lawyer claims that the application “meets the requirements” for a solar farm in West Amwell. This is after Garden Solar filed a lawsuit against West Amwell Township in 2012 to pressure for a change in the minimum acreage and the Township Committee complied by changing the ordinance from 20 to 10 acres.
The West Amwell ordinance states that any conditional use of this land should not disturb surrounding properties.
The primary issue before the Zoning Board of Adjustment is whether this 17.9- acre field should be covered by solar panels. Currently this is a small open field used for agriculture with an unobstructed vista of the Sourland Mountains. This is the rural scene that West Amwell Township promotes in its photographs and website. This field is surrounded by residences and a church. Commuters and visitors to the township drive by this field on busy Route 518.
If the Board of Adjustment approves this application, the agricultural field and the vista would be gone forever. Residents and travelers on Route 518 would look at solar panels every day! Attempts at screening this ugly site could only partially succeed even after many years of waiting for trees to grow around a fence along the perimeter of the field. Garden Solar would construct this field and then leave enforcement of maintaining this field, at potentially some considerable cost over time, to the township.
There is an alternative. West Amwell Supply could mount solar panels on the roof of their barn to generate electricity to meet their own needs. This would not adversely impact the close surrounding residences and public roadway.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment can stop this negative impact on this neighborhood and the Township of West Amwell. It can deny Garden Solar’s application in the best long-range interests of rural West Amwell and its residents. It can save West Amwell from this intrusion by Garden Solar.
Attend the next Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting on May 28, 7:30 p.m., to support the board to make the right decision to preserve West Amwell, not the interests of Garden Solar.
