A comprehensive revision of Wareham’s solar bylaws got the recommendation of the Planning Board at its March 28 meeting.

The bylaw was developed over the past year by the Solar Bylaw Committee, chaired by Nancy McHale of the Wareham Land Trust. 

The town’s current bylaws governing solar were written in 2014 with the intent of encouraging solar, and as a result of the loose guidelines and cheap land in Wareham, 19 solar fields exist in town with many more in the permitting process, McHale said last year.

“We researched, we discussed, we considered all things solar,” McHale said.”We took public and industry input, as well as the Attorney General’s recent ruling on the June 2021 amendment into consideration.”

McHale explained that the ruling was largely based on the Massachusetts law that bars “unreasonable” regulation of solar.

At the Solar Bylaw Committee meeting that followed the decision, the members added some more explanatory language to their proposed bylaw and agreed that they should bring their proposal to Town Meeting — even though they said they wished they had more time to work with the ruling.

This new proposed bylaw is intended to minimize the environmental impact as well as preserve the integrity of residential neighborhoods, McHale said.

McHale said that rooftop solar and small installations less than 250kw are still allowed as by-right uses. 

The Planning Board would act as the special permitting and site plan review authority for large-scale solar. McHale said that currently those roles are split between the board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, and such a change would locate solar expertise on one board. 

The bylaw would limit the maximum size of solar farms in town to 5 megawatts. McHale said that limiting overall capacity rather than size was intended to give developers some flexibility. Also, as solar technology gets more advanced, the number of panels necessary to produce that much power will likely decrease, she said.

Clauses in the proposed bylaw require rigorous studies of noise, lighting, glare, visual screening, stormwater runoff and environmental impacts, as well as an evaluation of the natural heritage and cultural history of the site, McHale said. The bylaw also notes that any earth removal must be properly permitted.

The law will be up for a vote at the April 25 Town Meeting, and will be included on the Special Town Meeting warrant.