Black Rock and South End neighbors opposed to the planned United Illuminating solar park on the city’s closed landfill in the West End of Seaside Park have petitioned the Connecticut Siting Council for a public hearing. The state agency’s authority includes jurisdiction over power facilities and transmission lines.
The Connecticut Siting Council is a final step for greenlighting the project approved by the Bridgeport Parks Commission and City Council that calls for a 20-year lease agreement between the city and United Illuminating for the installation of 9,000 solar panels
Last year Mayor Bill Finch announced a city partnership with United Illuminating for the Green Energy Park renewable energy project, one of the initiatives proposed in the City’s BGreen 2020 sustainability plan to create jobs, save taxpayers money and fight climate change. The green energy project will generate tax revenue for the City, and cut down on UI’s dependence on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for citywide UI customers, according to the mayor. The project is estimated to pay nearly $7 million in tax revenue under the terms of a 20-year agreement.
Black Rock City Councilman Enrique Torres and neighbors have voiced opposition to the location claiming the project industrializes park property. He has also expressed concerns about what thousands of solar panels will look like across the harbor from the vantage point of his Black Rock and West End constituency.
The other day Torres received an email from Melanie Bachman, staff attorney and acting executive director of the Connecticut Siting Council, in response to a requested public hearing.
I do understand that there is a large group of interested persons who would like to be heard on this petition and what I recommend, now that the petition has been submitted to the Siting Council, is for any interested person to send written comments to the Siting Council either via e-mail at siting.council@ct.gov or by regular mail at the address below. Interested persons may also, separately or as part of the comments, submit requests for the Siting Council to hold a public hearing on this petition.
Please be advised that there is a 30-day completeness review process where our staff analyst reviews the petition to ensure it contains all of the required documents and information, so there will be no action on the petition by the Siting Council during this time period. However, this is an appropriate time for the submission of written comments and requests for a public hearing.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.
Will all the wildlife at the landfill be baited, trapped and shot like as was done at Pleasure Beach?
Your Pleasure Beach thing is off a little. That entire strip was completely overwashed during last year’s hurricane. Any wildlife living on Pleasure Beach or the adjacent strip into Stratford was drowned and washed out to sea.
It’d better not be. THAT would seriously piss me off; and trust me, it takes a real lot to get me there.
Tell that to the two fox, three fox cubs and deer!
There is a small herd of whitetails on the landfill. At sunrise, if you look from either side, you can see them at the top of the pile grazing! In the evening, they are grazing on the lower areas. You can see them with field glasses, hard to spot them without help. Turkeys, you can hear them all the time across the water. Good luck Councilman Enrique, and others. The whole thing stinks of corruption. Time will tell.
I thought Torres was about the only one who was against this?
Looking over the petition UI filed–the chain link fence is eight feet tall, not quite the low-profile no-visibility to the naked eye mock-up photos shown at all the public meetings. So an eight-foot fence is the new view from Seaside Park. The contract to build was awarded to a MASS company, so there go the local jobs. Then there is the lack of a hold-harmless clause in the contract. Every council member who cares about the financial health of this city and the public access to open spaces (that means sight as well as walking on) is against this project.
Put the solar panels atop Bass Pro!
Bridgeporteur: That’s a great idea.
It is a great idea, however the 30% refund from the government to UI for installing their $60 million solar farms in CT expires the end of 2016–so that might be an issue on many levels. 🙂