05/01/2023 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING - Laserfiche WebLink

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11. Preliminary Operation & Maintenance Plan for the solar energy system, which shall include measures for maintaining safe access to the installation, storm water management, vegetation controls, and general procedures for operational maintenance of the installation; 12. Abandonment & Decommissioning Plan - Any ground -mounted solar energy system which has reached the end of its useful life or has been abandoned (i.e., when it fails to operate for more than one year without the written consent of the Planning Board) shall be removed. The owner or operator shall physically remove the installation within 150 days of abandonment or the proposed date of decommissioning. The owner or operator shall notify the Planning Board by certified mail of the proposed date of discontinued operations and plans for removal. The Abandonment & Decommissioning Plan shall include a detailed description of how all of the following will be addressed: a. Physical removal of all structures; equipment, building, security barriers and transmission lines from the site, including any materials used to limit vegetation. b. Disposal of all solid and hazardous waste in accordance with local, state, and federal waste disposal regulations. c. Stabilization or re -vegetation of the site as necessary to minimize erosion. The Planning Board may allow landscaping or below -grade foundations left in situ in order to minimize erosion and disturbance of the site. d. Description of financial surety for decommissioning - Proponents of ground -mounted solar energy systems shall provide a form of surety, either through escrow account, bond or other form of surety approved by the Planning Board to cover the cost of removal in the event the Town must remove the installation and remediate the landscape, in an amount and form determined to be commercially reasonable by the Planning Board, but in no event to exceed more than 125 percent of the cost of removal and compliance with the additional requirements set forth herein, as determined by the project proponent and the Town. Such surety will not be required for municipal or state-owned facilities. The project proponent shall submit a fully inclusive estimate of the costs associated with removal, prepared by a qualified engineer. The amount shall include a mechanism for calculating increased removal costs due to inflation. e. It shall be a condition of any special permit that all legal documents required to enable the Town to exercise its rights and responsibilities under the plan to decommission the site, enter the property and physically remove the installation shall be provided prior to the issuance of a building permit. 13. Proof of liability insurance in such form and with policy limits satisfactory to the Planning Board; 14. A storm water management plan prepared by a Massachusetts licensed Registered Professional Engineer; and 15. A Site Plan, with stamp and signature of the Massachusetts licensed Registered Professional Engineer that prepared the plan, including the following: a. Everything required under this bylaw and Site Plan Approval. b. Existing Conditions Plan, showing property lines, map and lot from the Assessor's records, and physical features, including roads and topography, for the entire project site, signed and sealed by a Massachusetts licensed Registered Land Surveyor. c. Proposed changes to the landscape of the site, grading, vegetation clearing and planting, exterior lighting, screening vegetation, fencing or structures including their height, and placement of system components, including solar arrays and related structures and equipment. d. An estimate of earthwork operations including the volume of cut and fill and the amount of soil material to be imported or exported from the site.