TIVERTON — Despited eleventh-hour pleas from residents and the group Preserve Rhode Island, developer Ameresco won final approval last Tuesday for its plan to build a 15-acre solar farm and demolish the circa 1750 farmhouse (or older) that stands on 72-acre Wingover Farm at 1519 Crandall Road.

In a letter dated March 2, Preserve Rhode Island asked that the Tiverton Planning Board “approve the development plan at Wingover Farm for an industrial solar installation only if the development is re-configured so that the historic building on site may continue to be used and does not result in its demolition or removal.”

The group also offered to assist in the process, noting that it has helped save other properties by providing rehabilitation funding and acting as landlord to someone who would lease and live in the property (see separate story).

But while Ameresco says it remains willing to entertain offers from anyone willing to remove the house, time is running out.

“We have a schedule to meet,” said Joel Lindsey, director of development for Ameresco, and any plan to move or disassemble the house would need to be accomplished within two or three months. He also said the firm will apply for a demolition permit so that it is prepared if no such plan can be devised.

Preserving the occupied house where it stands is a problem, officials have concluded, because the town code states that one lot can only be put to one use — and the use for this lot will become the solar farm.

Board member Stuart Hardy suggested that the Town Council could take steps to change zoning rules in a way that might allow the house to stay — he noted that similar zoning tinkering was done to enable the casino.

It turns out the farmhouse — called the Reuben Hart Farm — actually is on a state list of historically significant structures, Mr. Hardy said (Preserve RI  provided details in its letter to the town), so every effort should be made to save it.

He said that photos of the house’s interior showing hand cut wooden beams are compelling evidence of its colonial age and value

Chairwoman Susan Gill said that it would not be fair to the developer to, at the last minute after many meetings, delay the project for the time required to change town regulations. She did, however, urge the developer not to touch the farmhouse until absolutely necessary to build the solar project.

Town Solicitor Michael Marcello agreed, saying that the Planning Board could well find itself in court if it tries to make such changes at the moment of final approval — such efforts should have begun in 2018 when the master plan was proposed and it became clear that the house would be taken down, he said.

Also asking that the house and solar farm be allowed to coexist was Susan Anderson, chairwoman of the town’s Historic Preservation Advisory Board. She said she wrote to Ameresco recently to request that the land be subdivided in a way that separates the farmhouse and solar farm. She had not received a reply.