Acushnet Planning Board delays Clems Way solar vote, demands stormwater proof

ACUSHNET — October 3, 2025 — Acushnet Planning Board continues 5-megawatt solar hearing, rejects easy path on setbacks. The board voted to push the public hearing for a proposed solar array at 1094 Main Street — submitted by Clems Way Solar LLC through developer Rewild Renewables — to November 20, after a contentious first presentation in which applicant Zachary Farkas asked the board to reduce the town's 150-foot property-line setback to as little as 40 feet on the project's eastern field. Chair Mark Francois told Farkas the board would offer "very little sympathy" on the setback request, and Member Richard Ellis pressed for soil-percolation data and test-pit reports before any vote, citing a prior town solar project where retention basins failed to drain. Neighbor Kathy Barnes of 76 Robinson Road, who with her brother owns 35 acres abutting the project, warned that stormwater features could flood her septic system and said being surrounded on multiple sides by solar farms was "not reasonable to a homeowner." The applicant agreed to locate and plot Barnes's septic system on the plans, extend an opaque stockade fence around the full array perimeter, and mail abutter notices ahead of the November 20 continuation; a board site walk is scheduled for October 18.