A review of plans for an 8.1-megawatt solar energy installation on Natick Avenue was delayed last week as a result of a technical issue that may have prevented some members of the public from accessing the Planning Commission’s Zoom meeting.

Shortly after the meeting convened at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 2, attorney Patrick Dougherty, who represents abutters of the site, notified officials that the calendar on the city’s website contained two links to the night’s agenda – one of which led to a blank page.

Dougherty said he was informed some residents had issues connecting to the meeting due to the duplicate links, and he suggested proceeding in light of the issue could be a basis for legal action in the future.

“I’m not trying to be obstructive here by any stretch of the imagination …It just makes more sense from an open meetings perspective to continue this to the next meeting. Otherwise, you know, if the applicant wants to proceed at their own peril, that’s their issue. But the whole thing could be invalidated by someone saying they weren’t able to access the meeting.”

A pause in the proceedings ensued as the commission and members of planning staff waited for legal counsel Stephen Marsella to log on. During that time, Robert Murray, the attorney representing the Natick Avenue project’s applicant, Revity Energy, requested that the hearing be continued to a later meeting due to the public participation concern.

“It would be a shame if somehow the good work of the commission would be delayed further by someone raising this issue,” he said.

Once Marsella arrived, he agreed that the blank link through the city’s page was a cause for concern from an open meetings standpoint.

“It’s clearly an issue … It’s going to be a jurisdictional issue, it’s going to be a notice issue, and if it were to go up on appeal, it would be a problem,” he said.

Ultimately, the commission opted to end the night’s proceedings and continue all of the items on the agenda to its next regular meeting, scheduled for March 2.

Commission Chairman Michael Smith said the “extensive notification requirements” made it more practical to continue the night’s business to next month rather than seek to schedule a special meeting.

“I apologize to everybody who has come on board, but it is just a key issue that everybody who wants to participate has to have that opportunity,” he said, thanking Dougherty for bringing the issue to the commission’s attention. “That’s a pretty basic tenet of what we do in public.”

Marsella also agreed with the continuation, advising that the circumstances were akin to the commission having a lack of a quorum due to an unforeseen issue, such as inclement weather.

“This is just a technical snowstorm, in a way,” he said.

Last week’s meeting had been set to feature a continuation of a January hearing on the preliminary plan submission for the Natick Avenue project, which received master plan approval in February 2019. The preliminary plan phase involves a more granular review of the project’s various elements, including buffering and other issues, as well as compliance with – or alterations to – conditions set as part of the master plan approval.

Prior to the website link issue coming to light, the commission did vote unanimously in favor of a request from Revity Energy – formerly known as Southern Sky Renewable Energy – for a one-year extension of the project’s master plan approval.

Murray described the extension as a “housekeeping” matter. After the vote and the discussion over the technical issue, he asked that it be brought back before the commission at its next meeting “out of an abundance of caution.”

Last week’s meeting was the latest episode in what has often been a contentious debate over the Natick Avenue project.

The Planning Commission approved the Natick Avenue project’s master plan on a 5-4 vote in February 2019. In May of that year, the Zoning Board of Review, sitting in its capacity as the Platting Board, denied an appeal of the commission’s decision.

Abutters of the project, represented by Dougherty, subsequently appealed the matter in Superior Court. A decision in that case is pending.

The Natick Avenue installation was the last commercial-scale solar project to review master plan approval before the City Council enacted a moratorium on such projects in early 2019.

A year later, the city adopted new zoning that prohibits such projects in A-80 residential and S-1 open space zones – changes designed to curb the spread of commercial-scale solar in Western Cranston.

Additionally, Revity’s Natick Avenue project was selected through a bidding process last year as the city’s partner for a planned net metering agreement, which would see Cranston and the developer split renewable energy credits.

In the months leading up to the preliminary plan review, the Natick Avenue Solar Advisory Committee – comprised of two community members, a representative from the applicant, a member of planning staff and a peer landscape architect – met on three occasions to review buffering plans for the site.

Drake Patten, one of the community representatives on the advisory panel, said a number of concerns remain among neighbors. Those include buffering and landscaping, the nature of new and upgraded utility poles at and near the site, and how enforcement of various conditions will be conducted moving forward.

“The reality is, you can’t hide an elephant behind a Volkswagen,” she said.