Solar arrays spark outrage
RIDGEFIELD — Do green energy’s mechanical under-works — solar arrays, windmills — threaten the leafy look and rural illusions of Ridgefield’s residential neighborhoods? The selectmen are looking into it.
A large solar array behind a new house being built off Canterbury Lane brought the issue to the selectmen’s attention — thanks to about 10 neighbors who visited the board’s Nov. 28 meeting did.
“Sixty-five solar panels,” said Sanjay Tripathi, the Canterbury Lane neighbor closest to the solar installation. “… Suddenly, it feels like I’m living in a factory zone.”
Visible from every widow looking out the back of Tripathi’s house, past his pool and patio, are two metal frames for ground-based solar arrays, sloped to catch the sun — though at this point the solar system isn’t finished and it’s just the frames.
“The structure is huge,” Betty Masi of Canterbury Lane told the selectmen. “It’s not something you see in a residential neighborhood. It’s factoryl-ike.”
“We’re used to seeing horse and horse farm,” said Greg Dellacorte of Canterbury Lane. “This is very industrial looking.”
In documents presented to the Board of Selectmen, Tripathi described the system as: “65 solar panels each generating 360W on two industrial-stye ground frames, footprint 3,200 square feet.”
He estimates each of the two frames as 30 feet long, 20 wide and 18 feet high. “Each frame bigger than a truck,” his presentation says.
“It was passed as an accessory use and an accessory structure,” Tripathi told the selectmen.
Planning and Zoning Director Richard Baldelli later confirmed for The Press that he had approved a “a ground mount solar array, for premises located at 90 Canterbury Lane” issuing the solar energy system a zoning permit on Nov.13.
“It is my opinion that the proposed solar array is compliant with the minimum yard setback and building height standards,” Baldelli said.
Tripathi has appealed Baldelli’s decision to issue the permit to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the appeal is scheduled for a hearing on Jan. 7.
Tripathi argues that solar systems of the sort being built beside his house shouldn’t be considered a typical accessory use to a residence — like a swimming pool or a tennis court.
Energy-producing systems the size of those going up on Canterbury Lane present a challenge to Ridgefield’s residential zoning and the small town charm that its designed to protect.
“We’re not thinking about mini-power plants in our backyard,” Tripathi told the selectmen.
Another Ridgebury resident who attended the selectmen’s meeting, Eric Beckenstein of Old Stagecoach Road, questioned how the large solar arrays could be approved as accessory uses “customary and incidental to a residential use” in the language of the zoning codes.
“How is this an accessory structure?” Beckenstein said. “It’s 3,200 square feet!”
Baldelli said the application confirmed the neighbors’ assertion that the completed system would have 65 solar panels in the two arrays, but he thinks it’s smaller than Beckenstein and Tripathi calculate.
“I believe the approximate total square footage is 1,050 square feet,” Baldelli said.
Kitsey Snow, a Conservation Commission member who lives in the area, also spoke against the solar system at the selectmen’s meeting.
“It’s so close to the property line, there’s no room for trees,” she said.
Tripathi said he’d spoken with an arborist about trying screen the view of the solar arrays from his property. He was told it would take rows of trees at three different heights and would cost about $30,000 — before the cost of irrigation system the arborist recommended, or on-going maintenance to keep the trees alive.
“These things are so big you can’t landscape them away,” he told the selectmen.
The selectmen plan to further research how other communities tackle the issue.
“The structure is huge. It’s not something you see in a residential neighborhood. It’s factory-like.” Betty Masi, of Canterbury Lane