Solar firm withdraws Westport farm plan

Farm planned for 30-acre tract, but town deems application deficient

By Ted Hayes
Posted 9/18/24

A Natick solar farm developer has withdrawn, for now, a plan to build a large solar farm on an undeveloped 30-acre plot of land on Division Road.

WEB Westport Solar LLC had applied to the …

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Solar firm withdraws Westport farm plan

Farm planned for 30-acre tract, but town deems application deficient

Posted

A Natick solar farm developer has withdrawn, for now, a plan to build a large solar farm on an undeveloped 30-acre plot of land on Division Road.

WEB Westport Solar LLC had applied to the planning board for permission to develop the farm on land it purchased 12 years ago from Viola P and Paul L Gay for $925,000. But prior to the most recent Westport Planning Board meeting, developers requested that the application be withdrawn without prejudice, meaning it could later be re-submitted.

Town planner Michael Burris said the decision to shelve the project for now came about because the accompanying application “was very deficient in terms of wetlands delineation.”

Though the applicants had included the property’s wetlands in their drawings and application, they did not survey them themselves but instead used state maps that show general locations of wetlands areas.

When conservation agent Chris Capone went out to inspect the property, “he found that it would be a pretty substantial change from what was represented in the plans” due to the actual location of wetlands, Burris told the planning board last week.

In addition, there is a dispute with a neighbor over an easement, he said.

“For those two reasons I urged the applicant to withdraw this application,” Burris said. “There’s still quite a bit of work that they still need to do. They are intending on coming back to the board and re-submitting at a later date — I don’t have any indiciaton of when that might be.”

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