Plans for a Plymouth solar array that involve building an access road from Kingston hit yet another stumbling block this week.

PLYMOUTH – Plans for a Plymouth solar array that involve building an access road from Kingston hit yet another stumbling block this week.

Attorney Meg Sheehan fired off an email to the developer and all parties involved that her clients, who abut the site located on Carver Road, will take legal action if the project moves forward.

“This is to put the town of Plymouth, Sun Edison, and the Annawon Council of the Boy Scouts of America on notice that my clients Diane Bishop, Lisa Lamminen and Michelle Constantine intend to pursue legal options to stop work on the industrial solar facility proposed for 78 acres on Kristin Road, Plymouth,” the letter reads.

The Annawon Council of Boy Scouts is hoping to site a 34-acre solar array on the 78-acre parcel located at 79R Carver Road in West Plymouth. To do so, the organization wants to build a 2,300 access road leading from Parting Ways Road in Kingston to the array’s northwest corner. A second 220 foot long maintenance road would access the site from Kristin Road in Plymouth – a cul-de-sac.

The array and the roads to it would all be located in residentially zoned neighborhoods – something Sheehan said is illegal and not allowed under either town’s zoning bylaws. Industrial uses like solar arrays are not allowed in residential zones, she added.

However, Plymouth’s Director of Planning and Development Lee Hartmann has explained that Plymouth has no zoning bylaws pertaining to solar arrays; in fact, “solar arrays” are words that don’t even surface in the town’s bylaws. State law is clear that towns cannot unreasonably regulate these projects, he added, so towns can’t simply restrict them. Kingston Building Commissioner Paul Armstrong said Kingston also lacks any bylaws pertaining specifically to solar projects.

Sun Edison is the applicant for the West Plymouth solar array and has been in contact with neighbors, according to Sheehan.

“Sun Edison has been saying they fully intend to build it even if they don’t get the access from Kingston,” she added. “They plan to put an access road at the end of the cul-de-sac in the Kristin Road, Plymouth, neighborhood, with heavy construction equipment going in and out.”

It’s not the first time Sheehan has notified Plymouth of what she feels are violations of the town’s own bylaws and state laws as they pertain to solar arrays. She maintains that Plymouth’s position that solar arrays fall under the auspices of “allowed uses” is patently false. She says they are industrial uses that should not be allowed in residential zones. Sheehan is already involved in a legal battle over Plymouth County’s plans for a 5-acre solar array on its Long Pond Road land and is threatening legal action should the county follow up on plans for a 40-acre array on the southeastern corner of the 106-acre parcel.

Sheehan contends that there is a misconception that industrial solar is exempt from zoning, and she says the attorney general is clear on the matter. State law states that towns can’t “unreasonably regulate” solar projects. However, nowhere in state law is there a clause or phrase even suggesting that solar arrays are exempt from local zoning, she said.

Armstrong said Sun Edison representatives are meeting with him this week to discuss the plans. Sun Edison applied for site plan review in the neighboring town specifically for that 2,300 foot access road, but Armstrong denied the application as incomplete. He said the applicant has yet to present Kingston with legal proof that Sun Edison has the legal right to build the access road in the neighboring town for a solar field that’s not even in Kingston.

Plymouth’s Planning Board voted to OK the site plan for the project on the condition that it receives Kingston’s approval. Plymouth Planning Technician Patrick Farah said he recommended Kristin Road not be used as an access road to the parcel due to the disturbance the project would generate in the small neighborhood.

But Kingston officials aren’t enthusiastic about shifting that disturbance to their town.

Kingston selectmen Susan Munford and Sandy MacFarlane both objected to the project back in March, asking why Kingston should have to suffer so a neighborhood in Plymouth can avoid the traffic and nuisance the project will generate.

"I grew up in Plymouth and I am extremely fond of the woodlands and I have devoted 30 years of my life to conservation efforts in Plymouth," Sheehan said. "I was a board member on the Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts and was on the board of the Nature Conservancy. I think for the town to allow this kind of unnecessary destruction of rare coastal plane pine barrens in complete violation of their own zoning bylaws is wrong.”

Follow Emily Clark on Twitter @emilyOCM.