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Spotsylvania County
Planning Commission
Executive Summary

 
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Meeting Date: January 16, 2019
Title: SUP18-0002 - Sustainable Property Holdings, LLC (sPower Solar Energy Facility Site B) (Livingston Voting District)
Type: Action, Power Point Presentation
Agenda Title: SUP18-0002 - Sustainable Property Holdings, LLC (sPower Solar Energy Facility Site B) (Livingston Voting District)
Recommendation:

Staff recommends approval of SUP18-0002 with the attached conditions. Staff strongly believes that the conditions are necessary for the project to meet the 8 Special Use Standards of Review and be consistent Comprehensive Plan in an on-balance review. Staff does have reservations about the size/scale of the facility, although this specific case is for the smallest development area, and cautions that some conditions intended to mitigate impacts of the greater facility may change the project scope. For example, the applicant has requested 800 acres of land disturbance, which is double the conditioned 400 acres. Limiting the disturbed area may have the consequence of prolonging the construction time frame. The majority of health, safety, and welfare concerns with the project and the greatest potential for negative impacts on the community are during the construction phase. Once established, the solar energy facility should be a safe, clean, quiet neighbor.

Summary:

The applicant requests special use permit approval on one parcel to develop a 30 MW solar energy facility on a 245 acre and Agricultural 3 (A-3) zoned property identified as Tax Map 28-A-58.  The property is located in western Spotsylvania County approximately 650 feet south of the intersection of W. Catharpin Road and Post Oak Road.  The property is located outside of the Primary Development Boundary.  The property is identified for Rural Residential development on the Future Land Use Map of the Comprehensive Plan. 

 

The Planning Commission held a public hearing on December 19, 2018 and closed the hearing. The Commission voted to continue the discussion on this special use to January 2, 2019. On January 2, 2019, the Planning Commission voted to have staff draft several amendments to the condition recommended by staff. Planning and County Attorney staff have drafted those amendments and reviewed the draft conditions in their entirety to offer additional amendments to ensure clarity and enforceability. The attached draft conditions document includes staff recommended changes in underline/strike-through format and the conditions that address the Planning Commission direction are highlighted in yellow. A summary of the amendments follows:

A.      General

  • A condition has been added to the liability insurance provision. It requires annual submission of Certificates of Insurance and the bi-annual review of the insurance by the County’s insurance carrier and required increases if deemed necessary by the County’s insurance carrier when necessary to protect the County.
  • The trigger for the proof of insurance is now prior to issuance of a land-disturbing permit.
  • A condition has been added to prohibit panels manufactured using GenX. (staff recommended condition)
  • Vehicle speed restrictions within the Property are deleted.
  • The “Initial Project Decommissioning and Site Restoration Plan” is no longer conditioned. Instead the decommissioning conditions have been re-written to include all requirements for decommissioning and surety within the Special Use Permit Conditions. (staff recommended change)

B.      Construction

  • Wide Load vehicle references are changed to Oversize Load and the definition of Oversize Load Vehicle references the Department of Motor Vehicles Haul Permit.
  • Timing of video documentation of roads is added. (staff addition)
  • Conditions are amended to prohibit construction (including pile driving) on Sundays.
  • Condition has been amended to allow internet advertising of the public liaison and coordination of information with the County’s Public Information Officer.
  • Condition has been amended to add the Spotsylvania County Sheriff and Virginia State Police to the Joint Construction Traffic Reaction Team.

C.      Erosion and Sediment Control

  • Condition has been amended to remove the sentence that identifies the crew requirements for the remediation team.
  • Condition has been clarified that stabilized land does not count towards the 400 acres of disturbed land.

D.      Burning and Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Management

  • Condition has been amended to prohibit the burning of timber waste or any other matter.

E.       Landscaping, Maintenance, Setbacks, and Buffers:

  • The “Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center Landscape, Revegetation and Management Plan” is no longer conditioned as a whole. Instead only the Invasive Species Management Plan is conditioned and the landscaping conditions have been re-written to include all requirements for plantings, berms, and maintenance within the Special Use Permit Conditions. (staff recommended change)
  • Condition now provides for a consistent setback around the entire facility.
  • Condition states that the berm must be an earthen berm.
  • Condition requires the landscape bond to be in place for 3 years.

F.       Biological

  • Condition includes soil tests to determine fertilizer composition.

G.      Water

  • Condition requires the use of public water only.

 

Staff concurs with the Planning Commission’s recommended conditions with the exception of the prohibition on burning wood waste. Staff presents the following for the Planning Commission’s consideration:

·         Trench burning is a standard practice used to clear tracts of land of wood debris. When operated correctly, trench burning significantly reduces combustion time and smoke generation when compared to open burning. The staff conditions increase the minimum required distance between trench burning operations and the facility’s property boundary to minimize any negative impacts of smoke on the surround community.

·         Disallowing burning may prolong the construction phase of the project and result in a greater impact on the local road network due to the increase in truck traffic required to haul debris and mulch.

·         Mulch piles need to be properly managed to prohibit internal heat build-up and spontaneous combustion (see attached article “A Perfect Storm: Mulch Fire Dynamics and Prevention”).

·         County Utilities Director, Ben Loveday, with affirmation from Fire Chief, Jay Cullinan, notes that the County experiences multiple mulch fires a year resulting from combustion within existing mulch piles, mulch fires may smolder due to lack of oxygen and produce large volumes of smoke, mulch fires may burn for days with little indication of internal smoldering, and fighting mulch fires requires large volumes of water or smothering, a process that may take days to fully extinguish. They recommend rotation and aeration of piles and windrows at regular intervals, as well as maintaining proper fire breaks to decrease the likelihood of mulch fires. Chief Cullinan further recommends that mulch be removed from the site, rather than stored on the property (see attached email “Re:Burning prohibition at sPower”).

·         An increase in noise emissions from chippers and truck hauling debris is to be expected for a longer duration.

 

Setbacks

The Planning Commission questioned the impact of landscaping and berms on the 350’ setback as related to the dissipation of temporary temperature increases within the solar facility.

Background on the recommended setback:

The County’s consultant, Dewberry Engineers, Inc., studied whether solar energy facilities produce a heat island effect. The conclusion is no. A heat island is the build-up of heat during the day that is then slowly released into the atmosphere during the night. Solar energy facilities such as proposed by sPower do not create a heat island. Dewberry notes: “The panels have a low thermal mass compared to conventional building materials and soil. They lose heat very quickly and do not create a prolonged increase in temperature which suggests a micro-climate as an urban heat island would”. Instead, Dewberry found that temperature increases have been observed in solar energy facilities and that those temperatures dissipate to ambient temperature with horizontal distance from the facility. Dewberry’s recommendation is based on a study by Vasilis Fthenakis and Yuanhao Yu titled “Analysis of the Potential for a Heat Island Effect in Large Solar Farms,” that found temperature increases dissipate to ambient temperature (within 0.5 degrees) at 328’ from a solar facility. Dewberry rounded up to 350’ and also recommended landscape buffers and berms to maximize absorption of any radiative heat.

Considering the size of the facility, the topography of the area, and policies in the Comprehensive Plan, staff has taken a conservative approach in crafting the conditions related to buffers, setback, and berms. The primary goals are to address visual impacts, noise impacts during construction, and the potential for temporary temperature increases. As another frame of reference related to visual impacts, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation provides guidance that “under most circumstances, a 300-foot strip of forested area provides an adequate buffer to give a passerby or a homeowner the sense that the area is preserved in its natural state”.

Impact of berms and vegetation:

Dewberry agrees that vegetation and berms will aid in mitigating any temporary differential in temperatures that may occur on limited days of the year, however, Dewberry did not find research or studies related to this topic that could be used as a basis to recommend a specific reduction in setback. The site would need to be modeled in order to quantify the impact of the berms and landscaping on the temperature. The panel groupings, topography, types of vegetation, prevailing wind directions, and height and composition of the berm are variables that would need to be taken into account. Modeling would likely produce very mixed results throughout the perimeter of the site due to these variables.

Committee/Commission Summary:
Review Date: Status:
Financial Impact: The proposed project is anticipated to have a positive financial impact. 
Staff Contacts:

Wanda Parrish, AICP, Planning Director

Patrick White, Planner III

 

Legal Counsel: Alexandra Spaulding, Senior Assistant County Attorney
Additional Background/Other Considerations:

Packet items which are new to the application since the Planning Commission's last meeting on January 2, 2019 are at the bottom of the packet's file attachments beginning with the file "Email - ReBurning Prohibition at sPower" and continuing through the end of the file attachments. 

Consequence of Denial/Inaction: The Planning Commission recommendation shall be provided to the Board of Supervisors. 
 
ATTACHMENTS:
Name: Description: Type:
SUP18-0002_-_Staff_Report_Packet_-_PC_-_12272018.pdf Staff Report Packet Staff Report
1.0_-_GDP_Narrative_Site_B_v181120.pdf GDP Narrative Backup Material
Spotsylvania_Solar_Energy_Center_Site_B_v181218.pdf GDP GDP
Site_B_Application_Packet.pdf Application Packet Backup Material
Airport_Map.pdf Airport distance exhibit Backup Material
2018-11-27_Home_Distance_Exhibit_SITE_B.pdf Home Distance Exhibit Backup Material
Fiscal_Analysis.pdf Fiscal Analysis Backup Material
Emergency_Response_Plan_-_Construction_v181119.pdf ERP-Construction Backup Material
Emergency_Response_Plan_-_Operations_v181119.pdf ERP-Operations Backup Material
Site_Specific_Safety_Plan_-_Construction_v181119.pdf Site Safety - Construction Backup Material
Noise_Study.pdf Noise Study Backup Material
18-11-12_Highlander_Construction_Sequence_Concept.pptx Construction Sequence Concept Backup Material
CulturalResources_Abstracts_and_Concurrences.pdf Cultural Resources Backup Material
Threatened_and_Endangered_Species_Assessment_Excerpt.pdf Threatened and Endangered Species Excerpt Backup Material
Small_Whorled_Pogonia_Survey_v180614.pdf SWP Survey Backup Material
sPower_Water_Plan_as_Submitted.docx sPower Water Proposal Backup Material
Heat_Island_Executuve_Summary_with_appendices.pdf sPower Heat Island Info Backup Material
Executive_Summary_CdTE_panel_safety_and_integrity_with_Appendices.pdf sPower CadTel Info Backup Material
Geotechnical_Report_Excerpt.pdf sPower Geotech Report Backup Material
Hydrogeologic_Summary_Report_Excerpt.pdf sPower HydroGeo Summary Excerpt Backup Material
ALTA_Survey.pdf Survey Backup Material
Construction_Traffic_and_Access_Eval-Reduced.pdf Traffic and Access Backup Material
Entrance_Exhibits-Reduced.pdf Entrance Exhibits Backup Material
Drainage_Report_Excerpt.pdf Drainage Report Excerpt Backup Material
Erosion_Control_Calculations.pdf Zone E Erosion Calcs Backup Material
Viewshed_Study_Part1.pdf Viewsheds 1 Backup Material
Viewshed_Study_Part2.pdf Viewsheds 2 Backup Material
Misc_Older_Cits_Corr_Packets.pdf Misc Cit Input Packets Backup Material
CitPackets.pdf Correspondence 1 Backup Material
LargeFileLinks.pdf Citizen Correspondence 2 and SWM Concept Plan Backup Material
CitsReSpower11302018To12122018.pdf Citizen Correspondence from 11-30-18 to 12-12-18 Backup Material
Cit_input_from_12-12-2018.pdf Citizen Corr. from 12-12-18 to 12-27-18 Backup Material
sPower_Binder_12052018.pdf sPower Supplement 12052018 Backup Material
sPower_Supplement_-_121718.pdf sPower response to Dewberry and Four Plans Backup Material
GenX_confirmation_letter_121227.pdf sPower Supplement 12282018 - No GenX Backup Material
Golder_Memo_1-2-19.pdf Supplemental Hydrogeologic Analysis by County Consultant Backup Material
sPower_-_Kaila_Report_on_Solar_Farms_Impact_on_Property_Values.pdf Kaila Report on Solar Fars Impact on Property Values Backup Material
sPower_-_Letters_of_Support_for_1.2.pdf Letters of Support Backup Material
sPower_-_Letters_of_Support___second_set_12.19.18.PDF Letters of Support second set Backup Material
Email_-_ReBurning_Prohibition_at_sPower.pdf Email - ReBurning Prohibition at sPower Backup Material
Article_-_A_Perfect_Storm.pdf Article - A Perfect Storm Backup Material
sPower_Supplemental_Memo.DOCX sPower Supplemental Memo 01082019 Backup Material
Supplement_12042018_-_Magnum_Hyoothetical_Dev_of_74_lots.pdf sPower - Magnum Hypothetical 74 Lots Backup Material
sPower_-_Fthenakis_Decommissioning_Papers.pdf sPower - Fthenakis Decommissioning Papers Backup Material
sPower_-_100ft_Setback_Analysis_R.pdf sPower - 100ft Setback Analysis Backup Material
Citizen_Correspondence_from_12-28-18_to_1-09-19.pdf Citizen Correspondence from 12-28-19 to 1-09-19 Backup Material
SUP18-0002_-_PC_Conditions_with_Exhibits_01162019.pdf Planning Commission Conditions with exhibits Backup Material
Letter_-_DCR_01-14-2019.pdf Updated Letter - DCR - 01142019 Backup Material
Cit_Input_from_1-10-19.pdf Citizen Correspondence from 1-10-19 to 1-16-19 Backup Material
SUP18-0002_Conditions__01.16.pdf Planning Commission Conditions with final edits Backup Material