Barnstable Planning Board Votes to Ban Battery Storage in Solar Zoning Amendment

BARNSTABLE -- March 14, 2022, Barnstable Planning Board unanimously recommends solar zoning amendment banning battery storage to Town Council. The board voted 5-0 Monday to advance Town Council item 2022-034, which revises the town's ground-mounted solar photovoltaic overlay district bylaw and adds three parcels at 810 Wakeby Road in Marstons Mills to the solar overlay zone. The revised ordinance, six meetings in the making since November 2021, strips all battery energy storage language from the draft bylaw and sets a 150-foot undisturbed buffer along residentially developed lot lines, with year-round screening required to exceed panel height. Attorney Mike Ford, representing the solar applicant, challenged the 150-foot setback as potentially "bordering on an unreasonable regulation" under state law and flagged an internal inconsistency in the "undisturbed in perpetuity" language. Town Counsel flagged a pending Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling on solar siting rights expected in July 2022 that could affect the ordinance's legal footing. The board also voted 5-0 to support the town's 2021 Hazard Mitigation Plan update, a FEMA-prescribed document identifying 38 mitigation actions and 22 funding sources for natural hazard risks including coastal flooding.