Four public hearings are planned for Tuesday night’s Gloucester County Board of Supervisors meeting, which will begin at 6 o’clock in the colonial courthouse.
Two conditional use permit applications for the solar facility projects, Fox Mill Solar and Daffodil Fields Solar, both appear on the agenda.
The CUP to create Fox Mill Solar was applied for by Joseph Fary, Pearfield Land & Timber, LLC, and Hexagon Energy. The property is located on the west side of Fary’s Mill Road and is zoned rural countryside (RC-1). The total parcel is 245 acres, but only 50 acres are proposed to be used for solar. Surrounding uses for the property include residential, agricultural, forested and undeveloped.
Farin Woods, LLC, John O’Connor and Hexagon Energy applied for the Daffodil Fields Solar CUP. The property is zoned RC-1 and is currently forested land used for commercial timber. Like Fox Mill Solar, the property is also located on the west side of Fary’s Mill Road and is surrounded by forested, residential, agricultural and undeveloped land uses. The total parcel is 523 acres with 50 also planned for solar development.
If approved, the solar farms would each generate about 6 megawatts of utility-scale solar energy through ground-mounted, rotating solar arrays, which would be uploaded to the energy grid through interconnection points located across the street from the sites’ entrance to an existing power line along Fary’s Mill Road. They would be able to power about 1,000 homes apiece.
The Gloucester County Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend both CUPs for approval during its May 7 meeting due to projected limited impact and the proposed location.
Utilities
The board is also holding a public hearing on an ordinance to revise the fees, rates and charges for county water and sewer services. The proposed amendment is intended to increase the monthly sewer and water charges 13 percent for all customers, as well as increase sewer and water application and development fees by 13 percent. If approved, these changes will go into effect on July 1.
Stormwater
The supervisors will also hold a public hearing on a proposed ordinance that would update fees for the general permit for discharges of stormwater from construction activities. If approved, these new rates would also go into effect on July 1.