The Alna Community Solar Farm, now 15 months past its anticipated finish line, has faced construction delays from a transmission study by Central Maine Power Co. that is expected to last well into next year.
The Alna Planning Board extended a permit for the project and discussed a proposed takeout restaurant at its Tuesday, Dec. 5 meeting.
The planning board approved the application for a solar farm on about 15 acres of land west of Route 2018 by Sunray Solar LLC in February 2022, when the project was anticipated to be completed in September of that year. Alana Martell, managing member of Sunray, spoke with the board by Zoom on Dec. 5 to request a permit extension.
“We have experienced nothing but continuous delays with CMP,” she said.
Martell said the solar array was part of a transmission cluster study by the company, and though the study is complete, the project has still not received final CMP approval, delaying construction until last week. This process studies the effects of a proposed power grid interconnection on its transmission system, according to CMP materials.
Some of the work on the Alna site must be done by CMP itself, which Martell said has not begun yet.
The project received two approvals from the planning board in 2022, one under the site plan review ordinance and one through shoreland zoning. The site plan approval never expires, but the shoreland zone approval only lasts two years.
Two poles of the original array were within the shoreland zone and need to be installed by CMP. Martell said the plan was reconfigured to include only one pole within the zone. Developers offered to install the final pole for CMP and were told no, according to Martell, and the plan could not be reconfigured to move both poles out of the zone while keeping the scope of the project.
“Just to give us a cushion and not be back in this position again, given their history,” she said of the permit extension.
The board voted unanimously to extend the shoreland zoning project approval for 15 months, pending a new site plan.
Members tabled a new business application by John Chapman for a takeout restaurant with outdoor dining next to his home on Alna Road, to be called Stix and Stones.
Chapman’s proposal involves a new building of up to 12 feet by 20 feet to operate from 6 or 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., May through November. He plans for a gray water holding tank and one portable toilet for customers.
Chapman’s application will be considered again after he submits a site plan with more information visible and meets with the code enforcement officer to discuss wastewater, use of a portable toilet, and electrical wiring in the cooking building.
In other business, the board held a workshop for drafts of a mining and blasting and a solar ordinance. The documents are available at alna.maine.gov.
The Alna Planning Board next meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19 in the town office.
