SCARBOROUGH — Members of the Scarborough Ordinance Committee said they wanted more time to evaluate a proposed utility-scale solar ordinance before moving anything before the Town Council.

Jami Fitch, sustainability coordinator, told the committee on May 20 that she and the town sustainability committee have been working for the last year on language for an ordinance that would allow utility-scale solar arrays.

In 2019, Maine passed laws that make solar development more attractive and feasible for municipalities, she said. Solar equipment will also become taxable on April 1, 2022.

Solar developers can make agreements to lease private land, Fitch said. Currently, four farms are looking to go up in Scarborough.

In a memo to the committee, Fitch said that the proposed ordinance is targeting solar development in the industrial, light industrial, rural and farming and rural residence, farming and manufactured housing districts.

Fitch said the sustainability committee used other established utility-scale ordinances in Maine as a framework.

Committee members said they were in favor of looking more into the topic. Councilor Ken Johnson, committee member, added that the town tries to preserve rural farming zones.

He and Councilor Don Hamill, committee members, said they would want to see a mapping of where solar farms would go in Scarborough.

Public commenter Alyson Bristol said she is in favor of solar farming but was concerned about the proposed ordinance as related to the Rural and Farming District.

“My concern with the ordinance as it’s drafted is the authorization to install a utility-scale system everywhere in the RF District,” she said. ” … There remain areas of the RF District that are in practicality rural residential areas, such as the Route 77, Spurwink Road corner, where a utility-scale solar farm would be incongruous with the surrounding residential area.”

Committee members agreed with a suggestion from Chair and Councilor Jean-Marie Caterina to visit a solar farm before making further decisions.

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