Scranton zoners approve city’s first solar farm
The Scranton Zoning Board has approved a Colorado solar company’s plans to install 6,500 panels on 14 acres of a mountain in the northern part of the city between Interstate 81 and the Morgan Highway.
The board voted 3-2 to approve a variance for Bear Peak Power of Denver to put 6,580 solar panels on 13.7 acres between Route 11/Northern Boulevard paralleling I-81 through “the notch” and the Morgan Highway Auto Parts & Recycling facility, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video of the March 12 zoning board hearing posted on YouTube.
Bear Peak Power will access the solar site, which also is next to the former Morgan Highway landfill, from Morgan Highway (Route 307) via Pike, Steele and Clover streets.
It would be the first commercial solar farm in Scranton.
According to testimony by Bear Peak Power representatives, Senior Associate Developer Amir Katz and Director of Development Ryan McQuigg, details of the project include:
• The site involves a total of 47 acres, of which 13.7 acres of a northern portion that would get the solar panel installation has a residential zone, such that Bear Peak Power needed a variance for the commercial use.
• The project would produce 3.2 megawatts of electricity going directly onto a PPL distribution line and connecting to a substation on Theodore Street; and would power 400 to 500 homes on that circuit. “We already have Pennsylvania PUC approval for generation and uptake into the distribution grid,” said McQuigg, testifying as expert in civil engineering and solar development.
• The solar project would not go atop the adjacent former landfill that operated between the 1950s and 1980s and that the city shut down in 1983. The project would further delineate the landfill boundaries. “It was never properly decommissioned and it is still there on the site,” Katz said of the defunct landfill.
• The area also previously had been mined. The solar site has steep slopes but could accommodate solar panels and the firm plans to install panels with fixed tilts and no moving parts.
• Further reviews could take 12-18 months, and construction would start after that. It could take until late 2026 or early 2027 until the solar facility is operational.
• Once built, the facility would have employees make 4-5 visits a year to check on equipment and mow the grounds; and the perimeter would get an 8-foot-tall fence.
Board member Shawn Walsh asked if the panels would be visible to the homes on nearby Pike and Steele streets. Katz said he did not believe so, as there would be a 300-foot buffer of existing trees between the site and the homes.
But four residents of Pike and Steele streets — Jeremy Srebro, Stephen Patrick, Michael Farrence and Paul Mundy — and two other city residents — Virgil Argenta and Mike Mancini — spoke in opposition to the project. They raised various concerns, including about possible impacts involving runoff, wildlife, the former landfill, a decrease in their property values, loss of forest, neighborhood disruption and traffic from trucks accessing the dead-end area of Pike, Steele and Clover streets.
“I am a firm ‘no’ to this happening because, well, we’re going to see it from our house and it’s going to destroy the value of our property,” Srebro said.
Patrick said: “We’re all opposed to this solar farm. When we look out our windows I would like to see forest, not a large solar panel or a wall that’s put up. You must vote to stop this project. All of our neighbors are standing strong against it. We will contact an attorney to represent us, if we have to.”
City Planner Don King said the former landfill has been a detriment to any development taking place in the area in question.
“Somebody buys it, they realize what they’ve bought, they can’t do anything with it, they abandon it and walk away from it,” King told the zoning board. “Forty years I’ve been with the city and 40 years people have been looking to develop this property. This (Bear Peak Power) is the first real development that’s come along.”
Board member Bob Gattens suggested the company meet with the residents to hash out concerns and return to the board next month. Walsh and board Chairman Jim McDermott were going to support tabling the application. But the residents said they do not want to meet with Bear Peak Power and the board should just vote.
The board then voted 3-2 to grant the variance, with Gattens, Walsh and McDermott voting yes, and Bob Morris and Michael DeAntona voting no.
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