[T]he city of Burlington has intervened in an effort by South Burlington to install solar power generators on an old landfill, saying the project might interfere with plans for a road connecting the airport to Interstate 89.
The Public Service Board last week granted Burlington status as a party in the hearings that could result in a permit allowing South Burlington to construct the solar project.
The connector road is shown in the Burlington International Airport’s current master plan, and it would cross the property South Burlington owns and where it hopes to erect 1.5 megawatts of solar generation.
Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration say they will not require the road’s construction and that they’re primarily concerned with ensuring that any alternative route will not endanger air traffic.
Burlington stepped in to ask that its 2030 master plan for the airport it owns in South Burlington be given some consideration as the PSB reviews South Burlington’s solar project permit, said Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.
In the Public Service Board’s order granting intervenor status — involvement, essentially — board members said Burlington had asked that everyone involved “remain cognizant of the 2030 plan and … not take actions that would foreclose implementation of this potential future (airport access road).”
Burlington is in no rush to move forward with any road, Weinberger said, and the solar project may likely have reached the end of its useful life before Burlington undertakes it.
“No one thinks this future road is in any way imminent,” Weinberger said. “This idea of a road is way off in the future.”
There “is some awkwardness” involved in getting from I-89 to the airport currently, and several parties over the years have shown interest in developing a separate exit for a direct route to the airport, Weinberger said. It was included in the airport’s master plan for 2030 intentionally and at the behest of large numbers of people who collaborated on the plan, he said.
At the same time, the city doesn’t want to discourage or hinder its neighbor’s solar project, Weinberger said. He’s heard no calls to halt South Burlington’s solar project to ensure the proposed airport road goes in, Weinberger said.
“The city is not opposed to the solar project,” he said. “We’d love to see solar move forward. It would be consistent with the city’s policy to support solar, and the airport is one of the major solar developers in the area. We’re pro-solar, full stop.”
The solar project would be on a closed landfill at the end of Airport Parkway.
South Burlington sought to prevent Burlington’s involvement. The airport road is “aspirational,” the town contended, and the city of Burlington has no property rights to the land in question. Burlington has also not identified funding for the road, and “the city of South Burlington has no intention of granting the city of Burlington rights to construct a highway on the parcel,” according to the Public Service Board’s ruling that granted Burlington involvement in the solar project’s permit process.
Moreover, the road isn’t on South Burlington’s town plan, nor is it in the regional plan that includes Chittenden County, said Derek Moretz, vice president of development for Encore Renewable Energy, the company developing South Burlington’s solar array.
“It’s fairly hypothetical to say the least,” Moretz said.
The city of South Burlington owns the land and should be free to put in a solar array now without worrying about Burlington’s speculative, long-term plans for a road whose need has yet to be demonstrated, Moretz said.
“From a developer’s perspective … we don’t believe this hypothetical project the city of Burlington proposed should obstruct or impede the solar project,” Moretz said. “It’s a great economic opportunity for the city of South Burlington, and it would be unfortunate for this long-term, hypothetical project to impede this opportunity for the city.”
Although Weinberger said the FAA worked with Burlington and the airport to develop the master plan, FAA officials said they would not require its construction.
“This is a decision for the Burlington Airport Authority; however, they will need to work with the FAA if they want to place an access road in another location to make sure they meet all FAA regulations regarding airport design,” the FAA said in an unattributed statement. “Any other use of that property will need to meet any applicable FAA regulations.”
The solar project would serve both the city of South Burlington and the local school district, Moretz said.
