Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Applause] good evening I'd like to call the order to Concord Township's Zing commission for Tuesday April 1st April Fool's Day [Applause] 2025 on the agenda let's have a call to order Heather please okay Mr Schindler present Mr eelis here Mr Peterson here Mr werel here Mr rer here okay if you would All Join Me by standing and pledge the allegiance right there which one am I doing aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everybody oh okay I did call to order that that was me okay I'm all right we already did the roll call approval of the minutes for March 4th everybody have a chance to read them what up John no I didn't yeah I read them online yep and I have here some place I'm good with them Mr chairman I make a motion to approve minutes from March the 4th yeah I second okay all those in favor I I abstain oppose abstain abstain I wasn't here for approve zero Nos and one abstain

okay minutes for approval correspondence let's go over here Rich uh nothing Mr chairman nothing nothing Mr nothing John I did actually I had uh U somebody called me and uh brought asked a question inquired about if we have any bed and breakfasts actually in Concord that you're aware of I know we have our Zone and do we have any active bed and breakfast in our in in the township that you're aware of no uh they inquired also about potentially didn't give you any specific location or anything like that um Heather what they did bring up to me was interesting um it and much like a um I hate you call it a container house but that's really what it is they take shipping containers now and turn them into houses um and I did some research on my own and kind of looked into it more it's not just like like I said I was it's not the stickers on the side of the container it's actually they become they use the structure some of them are insulated I come to find out quite well because they so watertight insulated and obviously they cut openings in them for Windows and Doors and things like that they can stack them put them side by side meet square footage requirements and things like that to create these quote unquote interesting modern um looking homes and not they don't get extravagant they don't get big much like a small A-frame um so I didn't know if and they also inquired if we had any bed and breakfasts active bed and breakfast in Concord so I didn't have the answer so um what was their question about the container houses if we if conord has any restrictions on them oh okay that was the question yeah and I said well if you get a building permit and which I you can get a building per permit on them I mean you can get a um a permit to construct this right it's it's a it's a method for it's a method that's that's

much like a concrete house would be you know you pre-formed concrete house which it exists um you know IC block things like that that is um you know it's it's a it's an alternative way of construction so uh their question to me was just a you know do do we have any active you know um requirements regarding that and B is there any bed and breakfast active bed breakfast in well regarding the zoning resolution and the container homes it's Sil on that so as long as it meets all the minimum square footage requirements height parking you know all the setbacks and everything then like you stated you know the building code does allow for yes it those type of um containers to be used for buildings now so yeah and Ben breakfast are we aware of any active B breakfast in no no okay that was it okay Frank any corespondence I'm non chairman okay I had none myself but it takes care of that Zone ating inspector report he it's all yours and I actually do not have an update this month I was not able to get my March um report done in time for this evening so question on that though uh in the trustee meeting they talked about the auction was held on the old Quail Hollow building oh yeah I could probably give a brief update on that yeah so um the Quail Hollow Hotel there was an auction there was a winning bed that met the reserve it was approximately $2.7 million um the the sale is not finalized yet the auctioneer has sent the information you know to the judge um and it's our understanding that um the it could be finalized this week um potentially we have spoken to the buyer the winning bidder um the administrator myself and

the Jet administrator and one of the trustees got a meet meeting with that individual um so they're hoping that the sale does get finalized and they and they do take possession of it um I guess there's still a small chance that the ownership could try to get it back somehow but I I don't know um if they will you know um but if it does go through at least we know who they are they are local they're they're from this area um they do have some plans for it and hopefully you know they can do something nice with it good great do you have any idea hint of what they what's up you have any idea what they're hinting on maybe building I don't know I don't know if that's public really to to share at this point I'm not really sure I'd rather wait and just curious Top Golf that's what I want we talked about the zoning and the challenges with it and some of their ideas yeah they're it was still very they were still trying to you know come up with a a solid plan for it but okay got you good I don't see any public do we have anybody on the phone nope nope okay new business hearing any going once going twice no new business okay old business work session Heather we have something in front of us on small solar regulations you walk us through it please oh sure I did put together a few slides to go over with you um we're going to put them up over here on the TV um DH the lights if you could oh yeah I can put them down a little bit

sure is that better is that good is much better you going to have your April Fool's joke to us this is coming to Concord right so um I'm no expert in small solar energy facilities I'm just going to you know preface the the conversation with that um I pulled some of this information from the township Association Winter conference and I've looked at several other townships Villages and cities regulations um in Ohio um um and tonight I'm just going to kind of give you some information about what's happening in Ohio a little bit and then how how some of these applications are reviewed um at the state level and um kind of get into what I was recommending um for Concord righty can you see I can see you can see yes I you so the house B 501 became effective of April of 2023 which gave the townships the authority to regulate small Solar Development um their definition is that it means solar panels and Associated facilities that are with that have a single interconnection to the electric grid and that are designed and capable of operation of an aggregate capacity of less than 50 megaw projects that have a capacity of 50 megawatts or larger um those projects are reviewed by the county um and all of these projects actually are submitted to the Ohio power sighting board for any kind of review and approval before any of them would move forward does that mean I'm sorry to rup you want questions but does that mean at 50 that the that the toship has no more say more no more say in it correct okay

yes so it up be up to the County Commissioners to make a decision so that would be the ones that on homes no 50 yeah yeah we'll talk about scale yeah 50 megawatt is okay large extremely large yeah but so here's a slide that kind of shows you know that in Ohio these are planned projects that um go that are going to be connected to the grid you can see that there's been an uptick in the last handful of years the orange those are the under 50 megaw projects and the blue are the over 50 megaw projects um so it's still growing in Ohio um and where are they being planned right now there there aren't any being planned in Lake County right now but um kind of in our in our obviously in there's a few in um ashula and other areas of Ohio um and I don't know if you can read the chart on the left but this includes projects that are under the 50 megawatts so these are projects that are under 50 megaw so townships Villages cities could potentially regulate these projects um so that color chart at the bottom what do the colors represent is that I guess that's my question yeah so the darker red there's more projects there yeah okay so the not necessarily more megawatts but more projects more projects total okay correct um so is small small so I think the defin the the terminology is a little

misleading so you hear small so small scale solar but is it really small um some sources in Michigan and even the representative that spoke at otaa talked about you know how how how much how much land area do these projects really take up so here's an example um A good rule of thumb actually they're saying for for each megawatt of direct current so one megawatt takes up about 5 to 10 acres of land area um this is 1.2 megaw um this solar field here that is um powering the um the the the farm that is there and it's also creating additional electricity that's going to be more for commercial purposes to be sold uh cuz it's way more than that would what would be needed to power the the house and the the accessory buildings on this property so this is more of a the primary purpose of this type of solar field is for commercial purposes to generate electricity to sell back to the grid um even though it's only 1.2 me wats it's taking up a large chunk of land and if we had a 49 megawatt project that came to Concord Township you know without any regulations um we would not be able to regulate it um with regulations we could um and 49 megawatts could take up you know 500 acres of land potentially you're saying 9 to 10 acres of land um for each megawatt on average for the arrays 5 to 10 acres of well there's this study showed 5 to 10 when I the representative from the OSU Extension said what they're finding more specifically in Ohio is 9 to 10 acres really yeah even with technology

advancing you thought it would have been as the the panels get better they take up less space yeah well and it also takes into consideration like the drainage the roads that you know so it's not necessarily like the arrays yeah it's just the total land area yeah big deal okay so we're saying 9 to 10 acres for each megawatt me yeah if I remember the calculation of megawatts either it's either one megawatt for every 20 houses or one megawatt for every 200 it's it's substantial megawatt I want to say there's a but it's one of those numbers it's either and I know they're far off but I don't know if I'm adding to zero or you know removing to zero but I know it's that's what a megawatt it powers that many houses so it's substantial it could yes oh it's substantial yeah sure quickly so I thought I I thought I would just show you some of the things that the Ohio the Ohio power sighting board looks at when an application gets submitted to them um the board the the board will not Grant a certificate unless it they determine that the project meets all this following criteria um I'm not going to read all of that but the point of kind of bringing up some of this to you is that the review process for these projects are really expansive a lot of documentation is submitted and it takes a lot of expertise to like look through the information and an um an analysis for these larger scale projects that could still be under 50 megawatts um but some of the um so some of the other items that they have to submit with their application is the purpose and scope of their project you know a very detailed description of where it's going to be um how they're going to connect it to the grid What kind of economic impact it's going to have um obviously it has to be in compliance

show how it's going to be in compliance with any of the um Air Water waste Aviation regulations that um may may come into play health and safety ecological information um and then if it's a wind farm there's different uh criteria that has to be complied with as well um oh this is really small I apologize and I can send I can send you guys this PowerPoint but some of the studies that they're required to submit include um you know the equipment specifications Construction route road condition study uh site characteristics property value is uh property value impact studies of the prop surrounding properties economic impact land use analysis a community engagement and complaint resolution plan because there are a series of public hearings that go on for these projects as well that allow for public input um they also have to have a decommissioning plan uh you know Landscaping plans geotechnical engineering reports Visual and mitigation plans Wetlands stream mitigation plan you know studies um things of that nature so there are lots of lots of um lots of information that is submitted for the community to review or the Ohio public sighting board so part of bringing this up is that if we were going to allow projects of this kind of scope and size in Concord and we wanted to be able to regulate it these are some of the things that we should be asking for as well because we know that they also are going to be submitting these to to um the Ohio power sighting board um but one thing to consider but for large expansive projects right for like even a

one megawatt project they would likely need they would like to have all that these are the things that they require so that they require past 50 megawatts right and you're saying we should incorporate these into ours because they're require am I correct potentially you know if we wanted to allow small scale solar as the primary use of the property for commercial distribution these are the kind of things that we should probably consider putting in the zoning resolution so that's not necessarily what I'm suggesting that we do tonight but if that was the route that the board wanted to go I thought this information would be helpful because these are some not all though because because what you're doing then I mean I'm sorry but but you could be some some of those things that they're having them do MH on a large scale they can afford to have take that risk and do that but if somebody wants to put a one megawatt field in on their property he might be pricing them right out of the the game do you know what I mean are you trying to prohibit that from happening or are we doing it with you know allowing it but with reasonable studies being done right right well we can get into that yeah right that's yeah if I follow what you're saying you know and realistically we could only do this in R4 right I mean there's no plots of land in the rest of the township other than out here in our Flor and there aren't that many there right um maybe for example I was thinking like if Connie ever sold the airport property I don't know how many acres she has but a developer theoretically could build a a uh you know one megawatt field solar farm in the middle and build houses around it and offer electricity included with your house that'd be a pretty good selling point you know no electric bill uh but there only only a few spots that could do that because even if you look at our R4 on the zoning map half of that or

more is probably Metro Parks they don't show up on the map but oh right but this whole quadrant over here is the girdle Road Valley and uh so there's a very few spots we 5 to 10 acres well seen 9 to 10 acres and that's what to consider what is the likelihood of us getting a project like that yeah not as likely as some other areas that have large Farms that are you know and that's why you're seeing more growth in in more the South Southwest area of Ohio or the green the green belt right 75 if you look at it's right down 75 which is Farmland you know you have families that don't want to farm anymore so they're solar Fields yeah they're they're leasing out large tracks of land to solar companies yeah yeah and those are those are like the primary use of the property at that point those and when people are going to do that probably going to do a project right under the 49 megawatt they can avoid dealing with the county or they'll do something way over the 50 and and probably do like a 200 or 300 megawatt solar farm I I don't know if there are projects where they're doing just one megawatt I don't know if that makes economic sense for for folks on a commercial standpoint um but they think you you you plan for the all all of them all the all the different sizes you know so so if somebody puts in like that one field you showed mhm 1.2 megaw more than what the person can use for his house and his barn or whatever and then the rest of it goes to the grid that's got to get that kind of approval if it's anything that's going out to the grid you're going to have to go to Ohio po fighting well yes I it's my understanding that all the

projects get approved by the Ohio P power sighting board but under 50 megaw local jurisdictions have can you know can regulate them but over 50 megawatts the county regulates them okay but tying it into the grid I mean you can do that with panels on your roof my friend in Arizona put solar panels in and he he covers all his electric costs and then sells back that's right so what so H how do we regulate that how much you use we can't regulate that well no wait no wait no if we know that they're that they're going to use 1.2 megawatt they're making they're putting out a field for 1.2 megawatts on a sunny day and they're only using .5 megawatts we know the other 7 is going out to the grid and the the guy who owns the the solar field is making is reducing his cost is he making money no not for a few years yeah right because you got to pay for the panels but he's got to pay for everything so okay well that's Co okay okay all right so go to the next slide oh it's going too quick okay this slide um getting kind of into some examples here um this shows different types of solar energy systems um accessory type

uses versus more of a principal use on the top um section there you can see um these are different types of roof mounted accessory type um solar energy systems these panels are generally flush with the roofs of homes commercial buildings accessory structures and they generally provide Power just to that um building or structure that it that it's serving um the accessory to to the primary use um of the property such as a residence or a building then there there's also the ground accessory ground mounted and these again typically provide Power just to the building um or use on the site and there could be some ancillary that's sold back to the grid but primarily the purpose is to provide power to the to the structure that it's serving um so these Prim there's basically two primary configurations rooftop groundbased but there's also integrated solar panels um which could be right into the building materials like the shingles on your roof or walls of a building um which are not probably as common but I like this image because it kind of showed it these structures in different settings more of um on the bottom two you'll see more of a principal use um they're calling small this this report that I got this information from their definition of small solar was two megawatts and smaller anything over two megawatts they were considering large now that's different like the way the State Ohio calls solar 50 you know and smaller um

but this this document was actually from Michigan um but I thought I had a really good image here to show you mhm the next slide um the top left house is actually a house in Concord um they've got the rooftop top mounted it's flush they're um single color look low reflective the other one on the bottom right corner I found that from a a solar energy company's website um that's a project they did somewhere else in Ohio just showing a different style of panels that could be mounted on the home um obviously the the the you want to put them in the best location for the sun to hit them next image I'm sure you've driven by this of we I think we talked about this last month this is the Progressive Field off of in Mayfield Village um I grabbed these images from their GIS website um the the total property size is 50 acres and these panels are just serving this the building on the site I don't have a really good idea of what that land area is I couldn't get the gis to calculate an acreage for me for some reason but you can see that it does take up you know knowing that the whole lot 50 acres you know it takes up a a good portion of their land they added those panels after the fact obvious um you know the the complex was already here and then they they got those approved um from the village to put those in um and this is an example of an accessory use so these panels are the accessory to the primary use of the property Mayfield wrote their regulations after this got approved because they didn't have any regulations at the time um and the way that they've they've allowed these now as a as as an accessory use in a commercial District um with the the primary use of those panels to service the buildings

there why is it clicking here here's a couple of photos again these are more um Residential Properties solar panels being used as an accessory use these are groundbased that are providing service to the homes that are there just a couple different examples um little bit I mean we we have developments similar to this kind of style here in Concord um so I thought those were just some images to show but uh so basically zoning consideration where and what scale of solar might be appropriate for Concord talked about does the comprehensive plan kind of address this um we don't have too much Direction um regarding this specific land use um one one thing that you want to make sure you have with your um any regulations is a purpose statement oh we also need to consider the Township's capacity to be able to regulate these um again with some of the larger scale projects some of the documentation that might need to be submitted and reviewed it's pretty expansive um you need to consider development standards site plan riew how would you approve these projects if you were going to regulate them and then also maybe take a look at some other community standards um when looking at your own which I I did look at a few and I'm happy to share those documents if anybody wants to see you know some other communities regulations question yes the one that's in concour now who they come to this Zing board I mean who they gave the okay to do it for example the since we didn't have any regulations they didn't need his zoning permit they just went to the building department and pulled a electrical permit or I don't know if there's another permit as well

with that or if it's just an electrical permit and that was it yeah and you know yes but with their with those applications they do submit and I know John you talked about this at the last meeting like structural information um stamped from a professional engineer stating that the ru is going to be able to support the the panels that are going to be placed on there um so they do do their due diligence to make sure that they're not going to do something that's going to damage the home or right jeopardize you know then electrical department is is involved the building department building just the building so they're going to be doing the inspections to make sure that they installed it correctly say CU they tie it in the meter yeah exactly they sub meter it and they tie it in the meter that way gotcha yeah all right I just wonder how efficient they are with the amount of sunshine we get here Ohio I don't really know yeah um I've had a lot of calls from a few solar companies that are installing them for people most of them are the rough toop mounted right um then maybe one or two that we're going to do groundbased and that was just because we couldn't do the rooftop because of some site something specific with the site that just did not work out yeah I looked in it for my house I have a friend that does it yeah absolutely I have a friend of mine that does this exact thing in Texas down in Dallas area um very large company that he runs that that that does that and he did a they have scans they they have a computer program they lit take your roof put right on top and they can tell how much sun you get um and even though the house is built you know East West the roof is sets up perfect for it it wouldn't it wouldn't pull enough to make it and quite honestly I don't have enough roof area either um to make it worth I mean everything's worthwhile but it's it's it's expense I mean this is it's not a

cheap Endeavor to put a rooftop solar system on your house I know you're looking at about a 20 to $30,000 investment you know there's obviously credits that that the federal government gave back um and offered and that was that was the spear deaths we kind of pushed it farther ahead um is the rebate you know but um yeah I didn't have east west I have it set up but it's it wasn't enough roof area to make a difference gotcha so some food for thought I've done my homework on a little bit I I can tell yeah just a little bit like I said I was just concerned for the amount of sunshine we get for one thing you're right how efficiently do they actually work or do they work at all they don't do it well with snow on top either even in Arizona you're right yeah my buddy says this shuts right down when it gets snow oh okay I don't think we're have large solar fields in I would be shocked to hear see it yeah you know I really would got you thank you well and that kind of leads me into I did draft up for your consideration just for discussion tonight some possible regulations okay um I don't know I'm not going to read through it all but essentially what uh there is a purpose statement um definitions and then we get into General Provisions um I I guess I'd like to point your attention to General Provisions um what I was suggesting is that we would only that if we were going to regulate these solar energy systems that we would only allow them as an accessory to a principal use or Building located on the same lot and and they shall not be permitted as a primary or principal use of the land I don't think that these would be um an appropriate land use in our res residential districts and since we have you know a lot of subdivisions in Concord I I I would hate for someone to find a 10 Acre Site and just do a solar farm um or even you know within our we are limited in

our commercial and Industrial land um and I think you know we would like to see more um Economic Development projects that would include more business and grow growth so let me ask you a question on that yeah so let's I I could have put that on my roof and I and I I want to make sure I understand it correctly and when that ties into the system I could then sell back are we prohibiting me from selling back into the grid no I don't I don't think so because there's always a chance you're going to have you know you're going to generate more than you need my hel is energy efficient as long as the primary use of the panels are for your home you know then that's part the rebate why the federal government did it is to create energ more energy solar wise putting it back in the grid put less Demand on the grid right or on on coal plants and everything else that we got right of so if that's the case then by us prohibiting from allowing someone to sell energy back into the grid right then well it's not necessarily prohibiting that it's it's saying that the primary purpose of the panels is the house first right no well the the principal use of a small so Sol system is going back to the grid not to your house to the grid so we're prohibiting that type of use in conquer Township as the primary use of that solar of that solar to go back to the grid right understand that okay but if I have it on my house and the primary use is going to you okay and not to the grid but it can go but it can go to the GD it can go into the grid not as a primary use but a residual use or whatever you want to call it beneficial okay make sure that

that's clear so it gives you 950 kilow uhuh you can give 50 kilowatts back to the grid there you go but not the other way around okay okay and we could make that clear in the text I I did come across a resolution that one of the townships had that talked about um that that had a language in there that stated that it wouldn't prevent you from selling back like an ancillary amount back to the grid but yeah but the main point is that we don't want just someone putting just solar panels on a on a vacant piece of land um and and as you said these are expensive systems so if you have a a property with your house on there you're probably only going to want to do what you need to power your house and the the facilties you know the infrastructure on your property with some ancillary right so you may have some months when you when you're not using as much but I would imagine that you're going to design the panels or the ground where to just just enough to do what you need to do for your home Heather would it make sense to expand this a little bit and include windmills because we have a lot more wind than we do sun and I've understood that you can put one windmill up and power 20 houses so a neighborhood could theoretically put up a windmill and everybody get electricity from so but then it wouldn't be a primary use right that would the primary use would be for them but I mean including some controls of where windmills can go in the policy CU they're a little noisy they can affect bird migration and things like that yeah so I mean we don't have anything that dresses those anywhere right I'll take away my birds I'm a burger I'm a big burer you don't want to no I'm a big burger I don't want a win tur no and plus you have to have a

alternative energy policy that would include wind and solar and just put a couple paragraphs in there referencing windmills as well and you have to have them high enough to get over the trees that we have here in Concord Yeah well yeah I'll tell you what though on my street the wind never stops it's just all the time really yeah it's been many and and they now have noisess turbines too yeah that's right they do Yep they're not huge but for a house they're good okay um and again under General Provisions it just being very clear that we would we not principal use small solar solar energy systems would be prohibited in any District again just reinforcing that we would only allow those as an accessory use agree and that solar energy systems shall be properly maintained at all times in compliance with manufacturer specifications and the state or federal regulations and then I went on to provide a section specific to the ground mounted solar energy systems and I'm sorry not ground mounted rof mounted um that they would be permitted in all zoning districts in compliance with the regulations regarding the height um the way that I've drafted it they should either be integrated into the roof or flush mounted panel um so in an effort to keep them close to the roof itself um as long as they use the standard lowprofile mounting hardware um it's not considered a

projection um and if it's on a flat roof um so that's they may project vertically if not if they're not visible from the street good add right there what's that cuz a pit wall then yeah you'd have to lift it up off of the flat the flushness of the roof so if you have a flat roof and you have a parit so you have a 3ft pit yeah you're going to it's going to have to be up as long as it's flush yeah right yeah most of our buildings have those parapets anyway almost all yeah need's to have so do you see that as a problem then or no then well now because you said you're allowed to taking you're you're allowed to mount it up is what you're saying as long as it's flush with the height of the top of the of the top of the parit basically yep yeah yeah okay yeah cuz that would that would screw somebody yeah um and then if there were any integrated energy solar systems proposed we would just review those as part of the design review that's required for new commercial buildings okay I don't where is that at I'm sorry which one is that integrated energy Sol number three there so if someone commercial and non-resident okay yeah not for residential understood yeah I added in a section about appearance um that any solar arays must have a non-reflective coating to to try to minimize the glare and they shall be uniform in appearance and color um I was suggesting that we do not allow the white or gr or gray grid lines on those systems unless they're placed on those flat roofs and screen from view now where did that come from it's it's kind of nitpicky for a Township maybe but as from a design standpoint and if you go back to maybe that photo that I showed you aesthetically I think the roof mounted

look better when they kind of blend more in with the the the roof itself the roof yeah so I don't know I think the grid lines draw more attention to it what's that the white and gray lines are for what I don't really know what they're for per se maybe John know yeah I do so so as the panels have Evol and the only issue you might run into that with that Heather is the the installers or the the companies that service our area might not have the pure black panels Avail like that's a newer technology where it's all black I mean they they to clean it up so we might be getting a line where we're prohibiting somebody from being able to install it not because that they could do differently they can't pick a panel that's that's because that manufacturer in this area these are all territorial driven okay so they might not they might not have that technology to offer yet I'll look into that for you though well yeah the one house I I showed you was pure black yeah yeah and that was in so was the one there's one on r84 right up the kingor 84 they have a solar I looked at it the other day I was driving by and they have a solar system on theirs too but they got the grid lines but it is they do have the grid lines okay it's the technology the glass changed the the the the wiring through them changed and they they allowed it to be able to do it so I don't I'll look into that though let you know if how that you know if if if that's an option everywhere now or not what about the solar panels that look like shingles have you seen those they actually look like shingle on the roof so you would even know it was up there I don't know how effective or efficient they are not not as good as the smooth bass on I'm sure yeah but they look good yeah I think those are the in integrated yeah yeah it's it's your roof of your house yep now we're saying here nonresidential usage if that's integrated into the the shingle for a house are [Music]

we eliminating that for a house no we're just not we're not going to require that to go to design review cuz we don't do any design review on residential yeah just so if someone yeah good point yeah um location wise uh the only regulation I had was that the roof mounted solar system May oh I forgot the word not may not supposed to say may not extend below the rof line or above the highest point of the rof oh it says no portion oh no portion yeah okay yeah I'm sorry it's written correctly um that way you're not getting panels that are off the roof below the roof they're just flushed on the roof some communities have gone and taken it a step further and said you can only put them on the back of the house not on the front I didn't think we wanted to go that that route because that really limits people depending on which way their home is facing um I address non conformities that by adding these roof mounted solar energy systems or integrated solar energy systems on a non-conforming building or structure or use would not be considered an expansion of a non-conformity okay that's good yeah and then as far as application I was proposing that they would need to submit a zoning permit application um that would include a site plan um and it would include horizontal and vertical drawings showing the location the height of the solar energy system on the building dimensions and color of the solar energy system which again I know they're going to provide more than that anyway because what they submit to the building department includes all the structural stuff as well so that we'll likely get the same so you required a site plan for a roof mounted well what they me I don't mean like an actual site plan but they show like you know the

roof and where the panels are going to go on it you know and usually there's a small just little inset a map of where the property is so not a property site plan okay yeah and then for the accessory ground mounted solar energy systems what I was suggesting regarding where we would allow these um and and would be that these would be only permitted in non-residential districts and only as a as an accessory structure but not as a primary or principal use of the property again to ensure that we're not just getting a you know 10 20 30 100 acres of just solo panels with no other use there location wise I was recommend their nonresidential districts for a ground mounted why just nonresidential um well like I kind of stated earlier I they could they in in in developments where we have smaller Lots I think it would be more appropriate for the roof mounted um than than rather having you know the um solar panels that could be 10 15t tall think you saw in the picture yeah um on a quarter acre or a half acre lot uh what about a 2 and 1/2 acre lot what about a lot in M Royal mhm would you rather see uh yeah I mean that's something we could look at I mean would you rather see a rooftop in Mount Royal have a roof mounted solar panel or

would you in they could be in their backyard where you wouldn't see it well yeah right well I I based on my understanding rooftop mountain is preferable right for residential use like that's going to be their go n times out of 10 that's what people want to do agree with it I you're saying you're saying there but you have two two acres 5 acre I have five AC agricultural but does it pertain to agricultural too well nonresidential I mean if the solar panel is an accessory to an agricultural use right then it would possibly be exempt but you don't have an agricultural use that you like what would you put solar panels in to power up Barn that you have horses in or something yeah I mean yeah could then it would likely be exempt if it's incidental to the agricultural use right but well how about if I put up a ground mounted one just to heat my pool and it's in the backyard uhhuh well I did have an exception in here for um exemptions for a single device under um this solar energy system number eight used to power a single device or a specific piece of equipment such as a lawn ornament light weather station thermometer clock pump would be exempt well pump yeah so you can see like there's they use them like for street lights sometimes or um things like of that nature those would be exempt from these regulations they're not even really on the ground they well or they could be or they might be on a pole if they're on the ground is there any kind of safety thing we have to be concerned about I mean touching children playing or throw baseball against them

yeah I had a small solar panel on my H bar I had a three car pull barn and I used to had a little solar panel I mounted in the front just one line ran it in and dropped it down into my car for winter storage to keep the battery charged and it faed South it it put out minimum wattage probably two minimum I wish I got a little bigger one but anyhow it it worked it put out electricity all the time except cloudy right and snowy well it was vertical it was flat on the front of my barn well um John we could look at you know if if the board wanted to allow you know larger lots to have the ground based we we could obviously we can change anything here this is just a discussion point but question about the pool cuz I think it's a fair question yeah guys want to P the whole thing up on his roof but he can put that's a great question a lot of people have pools in their backyard next thing you know you're running your heater off of it or whatever it might be your pump it's a great question oh yeah no I wasn't saying anything about his question but your question about what about a 2 acre lot or a 5 acre lot and allowing a groundbased for a residential I mean that is something we could look at we have made distinctions in the past regarding lot sizes and had different regulations for that so if you guys thought it would be appropriate larger lot to allow the ground based permitted by right rather than not allowing it you know we could look at that what you think two acres and greater I don't know one acre and greater I guess you could do it in one acre we don't have that much of that here to begin with so

yeah just TR elas um yeah I have a number of questions but I was working for Heather to finish her okay summary here because yeah a [Applause] lot I you want me to just keep going it then for now okay all right um location wise ground mount ground mounted solar shall only be placed to the side or rear of the principal building on the lot setbacks we would just um require those systems to comply with the setbacks requirements that are already applicable to the zoning district for the accessory structures um height ground mounted solar shall not exceed 20 F feet measured um from the ground to the top of the system when oriented at maximum tilt um 20 ft is pretty much the standard in all the non-residential districts anyway for maximum height for accessory structures lot coverage um we would include these if they're on a you know as part of the impervious surface area calculations now question I had there is at what Tilt at Max tilt which we did Define yeah the maximum angle of the solar the most vertical position for capturing solar radiation for lot coverage we don't say it's part of the impervious Sil surface area at what tilt it's different at each different orientation so that one would be at minimum tilt oh um I was thinking more of how you know how much how much act the actual physical location on the

ground what I was looking at was impervious surface area if it's if you have it flat it's got the maximum imperfect because you can't put anything under there MH so that that's what I was looking at when if it's at minimum tilt it's going to have the most impervious area or what's equivalent to an impervious area MH now what were you looking at the way I think I I was looking at just literally the physic whatever structures were on the ground phys like the actual foundations so just a pole yeah and the foundation yeah okay so that would only really come into play you know with we do have maximum lot coverage 70% in our commercial District so and that's important for storm water calculations and things like that right but maybe we need to look at that a little bit more closely okay yeah I'll make a note um addressing glare ground mounted solar energy system shall be installed to prevent negative impact of glare Reflection from neighboring Properties or rways that's a good point because that's going to change at different times of the year mhm you know might be fine during the summer but it's like like coming up the hill over here on crowy road certain times of the year you get to the top and it blinds you you can't see anything just where the Sun lines up for about two weeks it's terrible and the glare might normally look fine but certain times of the year it not be fine for the location of the Sun so it's good to have that in there that we consider

that um visibility the ground mounted solar energy system shall be located in the side of the rear yard as stated already to minimize the visual impacts from the public right away then there were some ex an exception provided in here where it could potentially be placed in the front yard um with approval Maybe by this board zoning commission I was kind of going back and forth like should it be a conditional use or better to have you know a site plan reviewed by the zoning commission so I went with zoning commission at this point where the applicant would be able to demonstrate um to to this board that the placement of the solar energy in the side or rear would not work because of either you know little decrease in efficiency due to topography um other accessory structures vegetation or some kind of interference with the an on onsite septic or other accessory uses as stated already there was a built-in exemption for a small for a solar energy system that might be used to power single device or a specific piece of equipment again addressing non-conformities this would not in not be considered an expansion of a non-conformity and regarding an application again we would want to zoning permit to be submitted with a site this time an actual site plan showing uh um again some of the same information horizontal and vertical elevation location height of the solar energy system at maximum tilt Dimensions color of the solar energy system and if they're going to propose it in the front yard that the a site plan review application shall be submitted to the zoning commission for review and approval prior to the zoning inspector ising the zoning per then the last section would potentially would address

abandonment requiring um the systems to be removed within 60 days and then I just had some comments you know obviously once the board you guys get to a point where you want to move forward with where we kind of are on the same page agreement about the approach then we would have to update some other sections of the resolution to cross reference the new section if we go this route or any other modified version of this but section 11 would need to be updated to list it as something that requires zoning permit we would look at updating section 36 under the site plan review to make sure that any new applications that are going to be submitted would show these facilities as part of their application um or if it's going to be proposed in the front yard um we also want to update the design review section um in case there's a new or expanded non-residential use that might incorporate this um small solar and then also the table of uses for both the residential and Commercial districts including those um as accessory uses in those tables there and then we would probably want to update the fee schedule um for a [Music] permit so I know it's a lot and it's just kind of a I just kind of had to do my best what I thought would be appropriate for Concord and I'm definitely open to your guys's comments suggestions concerns looks really good what you think would be good for Concord questions or comments for this yeah Mr chairman yeah U yeah it's really good thank you heather covering this is um uh first impression when I read this at home was it seemed honorous seemed over the top but now hearing Heather explain it all was like well if you don't cover

it you're going to get the questions later you're going to get the questions later but don't want I I for me I take a little more time to see if we could again my if if you don't agree there I felt it was a lot of uh I don't want to put too much bureaucracy when somebody wants to put a solar pan on the roof just this what it feels like that's what felt like to me but I understand the derivation of all the what you wrote that's just my first impression the the second one is are we presuming that there is no land at all or that we want to create for a for-profit for somebody to put a solar farm or Zone some area or or we do that on a if and we're presuming that that we don't create a district and saying principal use is prohibited forget it that's what it says it's prent I know that's my I'm I'm re reiterating the same question it's like are we are we presuming that or should we do should we have we looked at other areas the East the more Eastern rural part of the township are we saying we don't want it or or we say we don't want it that's the question that's what I'm saying it say we don't want it yeah yeah it is that something a for-profit is that something zoning commission wants to say we don't want I for one don't want to be honest with you for a solar farm your solar farm so so I um it's one thing a lot of people put on there to save energy that's a personal kind of thing yeah and I can understand but to put but to put some big commercial I've seen too many big commercial ones in my travels and some places they're really way out there what about Frank if it way out here by the Leroy border there or something where you'd never see it never see there

are some properties out there that could do it yeah you have like I said if you looked at that map that she had up there it's the green belt I mean that that it's it's down the 75 Corridor right and it's it's Farmland that's getting converted over yeah cuz the next the eth generation is not farming anymore and and and they're not everywhere I mean if you look at the the amount of we had in the state of Ohio I mean it's not you were back to 2007 I think right if I'm not mistaken this what it looked like to up to 2013 you know 25 whatever I mean I think I did an average a quick average if I look at doing some math I think it might have averaged 24 25 across years you to say we prohibited all together or so uh a little aside my wife and I were traveling California most of March and we happened to visit what I I think is the largest wind turbine Farm in the country in Palm Desert between the mount hinto I forget the name of the m east of San Francisco or South a big one East this is there are 600 wind terms used to be 4,000 where it's started in this Valley where there's constant wind and uh uh the engineer and me said we're visiting California but my wife didn't want to join me on the tour so I took the tour of wind of a wind farm that's awesome yeah I've got this great picture standing below a any I go up uh one on the Wind turban Farm there were two solar Farms each of 13 acres a piece because all this land on either side of rout 10

sr10 one they now want you to call it turban not a window when one turbine built to the standards today provides more energy than 13 acres of solar solar panels it's amazing it's amazing yeah yeah now they're they're uh the the the blades are 150 to 200 ft in length yeah right and they have like kind of a curvature to them anyhow I'm getting off topic but it it's um it it's really impressive with and John probably knows more about the actual solar I don't know enough other than you've got to convert DC to AC because the solar panels provided a direct current you got to convert it to AC right um uh but if if an indiv when it goes back to the grid what a couple of the friends out there have have it on their and it was very easy to get permitted in California I mean because they want it I mean it's like push it push it push it it was like pip other than the building the structural they didn't have any other they just had a Ply for a permit put it up uh on the roof when it's roof um and they're producing more than they need they have the sun they have the Sun so it goes back to the grid and actually the ROI on some of these are like five years it's amazing the other thing that that that is moving ahead is storage so there are battery terminals at this wind wind turban farm so they're building they have so much they're generating they're storing it in batteries now because they have so they have to have an inverter for that

to take the AC from the turbine back to DC yes yeah yeah it's imp impressive technology but they have enough energy there to serve 250,000 homes serves all the entire Valley PM desert PM Springs it's amazing um anyway what I why did I go there I was just trying trying to when when when Frank brought and rich brought up Pate do we want to cover wind turbines at the same I think they're two they're alternative sources but they're really you got to view them differently real quite in terms of Zo in terms of Zo what our our job is our objective but again I go back to the question do we want to say it's prohibited at all a solar wind farm I I know it may not be cost effective based on what I've heard versus a wind turbine but um um where there's a will there's a way I mean if you got land that's an Old Farm it's not being farmed and I I don't know I I don't know I just that that's just one question somebody come in and give us a win I mean a wind a uh a solar array greater greater than just under 50 and go to the BGA and ask for a variance if we put in it's prohibitive in well then it'll go to that's the route it would take then if we say prohibited well yes if you if you prohibit it as the primary use of the do it anyway they can obious to the bza just would that be a use variance then or an area variance BR maybe maybe I don't want to put you on the spot

question but it not permitted in that District that so yeah I think it would be a use variance not like the you know it's not like they're only Pro you know only permitted in the backyard yeah right yeah they're not allowed as principal uses in nonresidential districts right yeah they have to go to bza for variants use variants which is the higher the harder variants to get the standard you have to um it's not practical difficulty it's un yeah unnecessary hardship that there's no other use that you could do in that zoning District that would be viable on the property essentially just so it be it's supposed to be the hardest variance to get so if you want to encourage it I would not go that route just defaulting back to go to B yeah yeah yeah okay I don't think in in my opinion I don't want it there as a principal use you don't want it anywhere no not in con cour Township and if somebody wants to build it we come in and he hits us with it here and we look at the changing the the regulations again but right now I I'd say no realistic it's probably not going to happen anyway given the land that we have I I don't think it's going to happen it'd be easier to put it in Leroy where there's big Open Spaces out there I agree I'm not yeah so oh I respect that I still have a issue with prohibiting it all

together it's just it doesn't Fe doesn't feel like the mission of this board is to prohibit a business it just doesn't feel right we're not the running computer programs to figure out if the property is suitable I but Rich might be right it may not be but we're we're going to tell we're going to make a statement here and that it prohibits any business to kind of make well we already prohibited vaping and ecigarettes okay some places we prohibit things from being this close to this and that and things of that sort so in this case we're prohibiting yeah no I I appreciate that it could only go on R4 you know yeah establish a district I'm just bringing up the question is there not a piece of land or District that is suitable for a solar farm that is not like going to cause harm or grievance to other districts and other neighbor if without studying it I don't know yeah you can't tell by looking at tell where the parks are because there's several right right but I would maybe ask to well right and and maybe they're you know consider that yeah I mean and if you were you know there's also conditional use permit right so maybe there's a district that would would be appropriate to allow it with the cup MH you know maybe that's somewhere in the R4 maybe you designate a minimum and maximum lot size or land area that that kind of use could cover I I don't I don't trees too you got to clear out all the trees and you don't know where the hills are yeah you know so you this looks like wide open but it's

actually all Metro Park that old quarter well I mean there there is possible land you know it was mentioned that the airport right so I don't know if it would be likely that anyone would do that there but you know if we had a solar farm there how is that 500 Acres no no no no but this section right below it is a big empty field right now it's Giant and if you drive down girdled you look at it that's just a big all no trees there at all and I don't know that's got to be 25 35 Acres but they can clear all that right so they they come in with all the plans the clearing plan how they're going to put the roads in they've done the Wetland studies they you know and that again that's why some of the information I showed you if you guys wanted to go down the route where we okay yeah we would want to allow this we know that it could be large it could be expansive regarding the the acreage requirement what kind of things should we be asking for to look at so we can make a better decision as a Township you know but under conditional use yeah or under or under yeah or any any use yeah I mean I I don't know you you know how permitted uses are if it's permitted then as long as they meet other criteria you have to allow it y with a conditional use permitted does have a you know a chance for um neighbors who might be impacted by a project who come and hear about the project voice their concerns um there's a separate you know process that you know could could help the township if there was something proposed that might not necessarily be appropriate well I think that's food for thought I for us to maybe consider again like with the comprehensive plan we don't have a lot of guidance regarding you know these systems where we would want them you know the town

out about them so we're kind of trying to do this with minimal information about what what are the residents want what are trustees want you know that so we're trying to make a best the best decision we can um based on what what the purpose statements are even to of those districts that we already have in place if you think about that too yeah okay continue uh you you only actually was just a minor thing in it was and I think some somebody brought it up Heather in the application and you even mentioned it perhaps under app with the application you don't really mean a property site plan you mean a a location plan or location sketch that'll work of the yeah aial plan aerial or something say hey this is where it's going yeah rather than a full-blown engineer surveyed quite honestly if somebody's going to put one on the roof the company that's doing it's going to it's going to provide that anyway oh right yeah yep yeah uh but I do appreciate all of the various I was reading some of the definitions trying to understand like maximum tilt I just remember the game y Max tell I this is interesting I have a new definition pinball machine right the pinball machine I used to hit tilt all the time it was always yeah we all did yep thank you Mr those are questions I had we used to raise it up with our The Souls of our shoes I oh you cheated you did a lot of work out there was a nice job yes yeah the thought is Excell yeah she put a lot of food for thought yes give us something obviously

to talk about yes for sure yeah and that's what it's all about it's all do under abandonment do we want to say anything about removing the [Applause] batteries says equipment that's part of the equipment right it is and it's it actually gets attached to the house okay that wasn't on a on a rooftop un didn't or on res about a field are you talking about the field yeah no I'm talking about the batteries in the house or the garage or wherever they are well there are certain bades you know they have a tendency to there's a panel in the garage and the batteries along the floor are there I don't know so well the abandonment you know solar energy system so when we're talking about removing the solar energy system if you refer back to the definition it's a system and the associated facilities that collect the solar energy including yeah so it's it's everything I think that will include the [Music] [Applause] [Applause] batteries any other questions or comments on that now do we want to extend to say wind turbing or not yet based on what rich said I think we it's got to be a separate yeah it's different different it's totally different but it's similar principle but similar principle but you could put one

of those on any size lot you know you could put it on a quarter an acre you know wind it doesn't have to be oriented to the South either no well the yeah the sophisticated with the the wind turban Farms actually move well yeah they rotate yeah so you don't have to so is that solar panels don't move no they don't rotate at all well they they can they can move to the the probably the really big not the ones on the roof still not the on no not should not moving yes sir better not but the ground mounted ones do tilt okay yeah and and they can okay move okay so you couldn't have one on the roof going going up like that no you would want could Ain going to do it now do follow the sun they the seasons that's that's the only difference yeah yeah put one next to Rich's house so gives him the glare you want a boy glare there it is BL my neighbor I'm glad you're fine yeah right the same thing we don't have yeah who's keeping minutes well you did a great job summarizing did you yeah did you did a great job summarizing I thought that was I'm going top up minutes again like I did for the last no that was that was really good I did too okay yeah I checked with Hyrum we did not request the stenographer to be here since we're having a work session just like we had at the last meeting although you weren't here I I ended up writing up minutes um more of rather than fine with me I may we did away with her no and went to another you no no no she'll still come for you know as requested for public hearings your job tonight what are you doing you're going to have you're going have to listen to

the whole recording the amount of concern for you when you were not here that there was a lot there was I'm serious there's a lot of people here that care about you just so you know that we were concerned we were all going to cancel meeting just go to your house I know she called yeah and when that phone ran and said Heather I said oh God and then that's my wife said honey wasn't tonight zoning it was just a bad day for me oh that day so I apologize we were I'm telling you thank you that's that's heartwarming yeah thank you just keep in mind you're doing the minutes next okay what we discussed was if we have a public hearing if we have any votes or anything significant coming up we're going to ask this scar for to come if it's just a work session like this okay I understand we've got the the video recording and we have hea sure yeah so we can we can suffice with those sure and the money that we save we're going to have a party no I was going to say give us a but but she shut that down was not my decision anyway we're going to buy Frank an alarm clock sorry Frank smart watch our Smart Watch smart watch but your abbreviated version was very good very good so any other old business are we going to you have enough to modify a second time um not really sure if I have an idea of what you guys are looking for no so she's more homework on this yeah but not much I don't think so I guess you know Mr eiffle has talked about he

thought maybe too much on the roof mounted maybe it's a little too heavy-handed maybe we don't need permits for that is that kind of what I I don't know what the board's feeling of that is um that's kind of that I'm glad you said that the zoning permit for a roof mounted solar panel just seems I agree with Rich yeah I I'm struggling with but my I'm thinking not needing it but then it is an addition to the it is a visible Edition yes it is so like right so if you didn't want a permit would it make probably wouldn't make sense to have any regulations about it then right or would it make you know if we had like I don't know how what how the board feels about even what I have in here regarding the appearance type stuff if a shed though it has to do with setback property lines whatnot right we're talking about a vertical well you got size restrictions too on a shed right but I'm right but a solar panel on a roof mounted right now I guess with all due respect to the to the to the yard mounted I guess you would need because are you going to do a setback restriction on where that gets located at yard how many feet so you do have a side he said it can't be in the front yard without cause yes 10t so that's a zoning issue that's a zoning issue right yeah roof I could see where you're going I agree with you on that because it's it's vertical but I think it yeah I think on the on the on the ground monitor you would you would need a Zone could it could be a no fee zoning permit for the roof monitor probably I mean or some minimal yeah just a administrative cost Ministry yeah your property tax yeah I mean if we weren't going to regulate if we weren't going to have any specific regulations for rooftop then I don't know what we would be looking at I'm not really sure why we would even want the

permit but if we were going to keep some of these things in here about being requiring flesh mountain and no white line grid lines and that kind of thing then we might want them to submit a permit or how would we know if we didn't have a permit that what someone was supposing was going to be compliant with that then good point go back yeah that's a good point good point and you want to put a go for but they pink or yellow I mean I know that they want black receive the heat but yesl good points perit at least if nothing else gives us documentation M right so we can have some kind of a record what's going on yeah that's the way I look at it and like you said if it's just just pay to cost them paper fine we don't need a big number on it no right you're gonna be paying enough yeah right now did we say anything in here about roof mounted only on the rear no no okay that's a tough one only because where the sun's at right that's that's that's the thing it dictates well I know but you might object to the house across the street then you might it all together on the front of the house but if you're not facing south if you're facing south you don't want to put it on the back side of your roof well you have to face the sun with yeah I know but wouldn't wouldn't your neighbor say having those solar panels take the property value down might they might they might say that but that's Som how they look well I think that that goes into some of the appearance criteria in here no glare no grid lines to try to make it more aesthetically pleasing if it is maybe on the front of the roof so the neighbors going be more acceptable anyways because it's an alternative form

of energy and that's I mean that's right yeah yeah and we don't have an Architectural Review Board that would like Hudson for example or homes have to be a certain color and all that I mean that's really restrictive s we don't want to go that route so right okay okay any other discussion okay we'll try it again next month no other discussion let's go to next meeting May 6th believe it you're warm May no I don't this last P flew by oh no it didn't oh I did for me feel like it just here do I have have a motion to adjourn so move I second second I second all approved we're done oh y enjoy spend much time with you h