Moratorium for solar projects to be extended

By DANIEL KITTREDGE
Posted 10/23/19

By DANIEL KITTREDGE A freeze on commercial-scale solar projects in the city will continue into the new year, while a special meeting of the City Council's Ordinance Committee has been scheduled for Nov. 12 to consider revisions to Cranston's rules

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Moratorium for solar projects to be extended

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A freeze on commercial-scale solar projects in the city will continue into the new year, while a special meeting of the City Council’s Ordinance Committee has been scheduled for Nov. 12 to consider revisions to Cranston’s rules governing solar energy development.

On Oct. 17, the full council – in a special meeting held during a brief recess of the Ordinance Committee – voted 8-0 to extend a moratorium on large solar installations until Jan. 31. The nine-month moratorium was instituted in February and had originally been set to expire at the end of this month.

On Monday, Mayor Allan Fung said the ordinance amendment to extend the moratorium has reached his desk and he will sign it.

The moratorium extension provides additional time for officials to review, and potentially amend, proposed new regulations regarding solar energy in the city.

Continued until Nov. 12 were two sets of solar-related proposals – a zoning ordinance amendment and corresponding amendment to the zoning schedule of uses developed by Planning Department staff, and a Comprehensive Plan amendment and zoning amendment sponsored by members of the City Council.

The planning proposals, which received a favorable recommendation from the Planning Commission earlier this month, would divide solar installations among three categories, including a new “major accessory” designation. Under planning’s ordinance, a special use permit would be required for the installation of a commercial-scale solar energy system on property zoned as A-80 residential or S-1 open space.

The council-sponsored measures are more restrictive, seeking to remove language from the Comprehensive Plan that designates the placement of solar facilities as a form of “land banking” and amend the city’s zoning ordinance to completely remove commercial-scale solar facilities as an allowed use in the A-80 and S-1 zones.

The central focus of the solar debate has been the city’s current allowance of commercial-scale installations by right in A-80 residential zones – and concerns over the proliferation of such projects in area of Western Cranston since the existing solar ordinance was adopted in 2015.

Many officials and residents have been critical of the impacts of commercial-scale solar projects, with a focus on environmental effects and issues of neighborhood character, property values and aesthetics. Those concerns led to the moratorium, which charged the Planning Department with conducting a review of the city’s solar guidelines and bringing forward proposed revisions.

During the Oct. 17 meeting, at the request of Planning Director Jason Pezzullo, the council added language to the moratorium extension amendment that outlines specific steps that have been taken as part of the solar review since the institution of the moratorium. Those have included several public workshops.

Pezzullo said legal counsel recommended that language – which “essentially memorializes the work that we’ve done” – be included in the event the moratorium faces a new legal challenge. He also said legal counsel supports the three-month extension, but that going any further – which would take the moratorium past one year of being in effect – would not be “defensible.”

“We’re at the point where we have to do something. We can’t do this indefinitely … If we’re going to have an ordinance, we need to do it in the next few months,” he said.

After the action on the moratorium extension, Ward 4 Councilman Ed Brady urged his colleagues to continue discussion of the Planning Department proposals and council-sponsored measures.

Citywide Councilman Steve Stycos then called for a special meeting of the Ordinance Committee to focus on the solar measures, given the importance of the issue and the likelihood of the committee having other business on its docket for its next regular meeting.

“I think it is very complex and we’ll benefit from the discussion,” he said.

Ward 6 Councilman Michael Favicchio, who chairs the Ordinance Committee, agreed with the continuation and special meeting. He said the priority had been to ensure the moratorium extension was acted upon with enough time to address any unforeseen developments ahead of the moratorium’s scheduled expiration.

“At least we protected our rights … the moratorium is in effect until January now. I knew we had a lot on the calendar. There’s no way we were going to be able to go through those ordinances and amend them in the next two and a half hours,” he said.

During public comment, resident Janet Ragno urged council members to provide an opportunity for concerned citizens to “have our say” on the solar issue during upcoming meetings.

“We have worked really hard to work with the city, not against the city, to make a really good document. And that’s what I hope will happen in the next few months … I would like to see more workshops with the public,” she said.

The special Nov. 12 meeting of the Ordinance Committee is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers.

Council President Michael Farina was not in attendance for the Oct. 17 meeting. Favicchio said Farina was out of state and weather had affected his travel plans, leaving him unable to return in time for the proceedings.

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