JAY — Public hearings Monday drew strong support for a proposed 180-day moratorium on large-scale solar energy development and for an ordinance to limit lot rent increases at mobile home parks.
The Jay Select Board held the hearings as part of its regular meeting.
Walden Renewables of Portland described its solar proposal, originally 2,500 acres but now reduced to about 1,600. The project would generate roughly 150 megawatts, enough to power about 45,000 homes.
The company plans to install solar panels across 800 to 900 acres, including about 550 acres at the former Androscoggin Mill property. Jay voters are set to decide the moratorium question Nov. 3 on the general election ballot.
The board took no action Monday, noting that the hearings were meant to give residents a chance to ask questions and offer comments — and they did. Most speakers supported the six‑month pause on solar development, and every speaker backed the proposed limits on lot rent increases at mobile home parks.
Tom Saviello, a Franklin County commissioner and former state legislator and selectman from Wilton, moderated both hearings.
Ground rules gave each side five minutes to present its case. Legislators and legislative candidates received three minutes. Jay residents and nonresidents were allowed two minutes each, with residents speaking first.
The 73 people who attended the start of the hearings were allowed to question the speakers.
The moratorium proposal emerged after a petition drive led by Clint Brooks, a lifelong Jay resident, collected 543 signatures in two days — nearly twice the 226 required.
The measure would pause for six months the acceptance, review or approval of new commercial ground-mounted solar energy facilities. It appears on the Nov. 3 general election ballot, though Jay treats proposed ordinances as special town‑meeting items.
Much of Monday’s testimony focused on giving the town time to evaluate its role in the process.
In presenting the case for the moratorium, Brooks said, “Give our town 180 days … to stop, look carefully at what is being proposed, establish reasonable protections and decide what we want the future of Jay to look like.”
Brooks, who lives on Belmont Drive within 1,000 feet of one proposed site, has long been active in town and school affairs. He previously owned and operated The Beef Barn at Bean’s Corner.
Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere has noted in earlier meetings that Jay has no ordinance specific to solar farms, though its planning, shoreland zoning and environmental ordinances contain sections that may apply.
Tanya Demillo, a resident and member of the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors, said a moratorium is needed simply to gather information. The town, she said, should protect both landowners and taxpayers.
Darryl Couture, who with his wife has signed a 30-year lease with Walden, countered that the early stages of development provide ample time for discussion. His wife’s family operated the Jay Hill Drive-In Theatre on the property from 1953 to 1977.
Resident Craig Boone said he supports renewable power but considers the proposed solar farm far too large.
“I’m all for clean energy, but on a smaller scale,” he said. “I prefer it on buildings, not on a large scale.”
Dale Knapp, head of development in New England for Walden, noted in his presentation that the size of the proposed farm has been “cut down to 1,600 acres.”
It will “probably get chopped in half again,” he said.
Concerns about the project’s scale included the number of solar panels. Brooks has estimated that 800 acres of panels spread over six sites would require installing 250,000 to 300,000 panels.
Knapp said Walden has arranged to use panels and steel framework that were manufactured in the United States. He did not question Brooks’s estimate of 250,000 panels or more.
Public opposition first surfaced at the board’s Aug. 10 meeting, where environmental issues quickly became a central concern. At that meeting, Brooks questioned whether the distance between the panels and nearby houses — including his home on Belmont Drive near the old theater site — is sufficient.
William Bowie, a retired lineman and a Jay resident, told the hearing: “We are supposed to be good stewards of our earth. This is going to change the whole environment.”
Knapp said in his presentation that the project is required by law to have “no undue impact” on the environment. That standard covers visual and scenic character and the presence of game species and threatened species. Each site would have a 100-foot buffer zone.
Knapp also said the law requires that a solar array emit no more sound than 40 dBA per panel, a measure of decibels. He said the microphone in the Spruce Mountain Middle School cafeteria, where the meeting was held, emits about 80 dBA.
Answering a question from Jenny Boivin, a member of the Jay Recreation Committee, about the buffer zones, Knapp said Walden would keep a “vegetative barrier of what’s there now, and we’re also willing to plant more if needed.”
Mario Demillo, who is married to Tanya Demillo, expressed distrust of Walden.
“You really have to take a good, hard look at the contract,” he said. “They protect themselves. They don’t care about you.”
Knapp said, “We view this project as a low-impact development that will help the town of Jay big time.”
He added that Walden is expected to host three listening sessions for the public, all at LeFleur’s Restaurant, 224 Main St. The meetings are set for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 22, Sept. 29 and Oct. 13.
Knapp also said Walden representatives are planning to meet with people individually to discuss the project on 16 days at its office at 300 Riley Road. The meetings are scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 15, 16, 21, 22, 29 and 30, and Oct. 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 28, 29 and 30.
Some speakers stressed the project’s tax benefit to the town.
Johnny Castonguay, who does not live in Jay but said he pays $6,000 in taxes on property he owns there, said, “This is a good project that will help us with our taxes.”
Walden has estimated it would pay $45 million in taxes over a 40-year lifespan, an average of about $1.1 million a year.
Boivin questioned whether the town will see all that tax money.
“Don’t tell us what Walden will pay,” she said. “Tell us what Jay taxpayers will actually keep.”
She noted that Franklin County and RSU 73 also rely on property tax revenue, and she asked whether tax increment financing, or a TIF, which Walden has proposed, would reduce the amount of money going to the town of Jay.
TIFs are a method of holding down taxes during the early stages of development. A municipality can sell a bond to finance the project while it freezes the valuation of the property being developed. That limits the taxes paid by the developer until after the project is up and running, when its increased valuation may make up for the taxes deferred during growth.
Couture said his wife’s family had paid taxes on the old drive-in property for 50 years without being able to earn any money from it. He said the solar farm would help the family make up for the unproductive time.
The area of the old drive-in theater is one of four large and two smaller sites being considered by Walden.
According to a map provided to Monitor Local by Walden, the four large sites are: west of Main Street (Routes 4 and 17) on the north side of Jay Hill, which is the theater area; along the Canton Mountain Road adjacent to the Canton town line; astride the Alden Hill Road at the former Androscoggin Mill; and along the Spruce Mountain Road, also at the former mill.
The smaller sites are north of the Canton Mountain Road site and between the two mill sites.
Officeholders and candidates who spoke included Sen. Joe Martin, R-Rumford; Rep. Sheila Lyman, R‑Livermore Falls; David Duguay, a candidate in Senate District 19; and Trevor Doiron, a Jay resident running in House District 76, now held by Lyman.
Martin and Doiron agreed on supporting the moratorium, both saying the town needs time to consider the issue. Martin also said Walden should participate in the process.
Lyman said voters “should do what is best for all the residents of Jay.” District 76 covers Jay, Livermore Falls and Livermore.
Duguay urged Jay voters to “trust but verify” Walden’s statements and said he “would be proud to represent Jay in whatever way you vote.”
Before the solar farm hearing, the board held a brief hearing on an ordinance to set limits on rent increases by owners of mobile home parks. Under the proposed ordinance, a park owner may not increase the rent charged “by more than the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index” for the preceding year.
Lorri Nandrea, who works for the Maine Climate Council, said big rent increases put mobile home owners “at risk of losing their own homes, which are difficult or impossible to move.”
Doiron, a lifelong Jay resident, said he usually prefers “to allow a competitive market to function with as little government interference as possible,” but that mobile home owners are not in a competitive market.
A mobile home owner does not have the freedom to move easily, he said, adding he favors the ordinance because of the relative immobility of the houses.
Deb Dalot, a resident of Pine Haven Mobile Home Park, said, “If rents go up any more, we’ll have to sell my trailer and move in with my kids.”
Pine Haven is one of three Jay parks bought by a Florida corporation, which raised rents by as much as 50 percent. The others are the Lambert Street Mobile Home Park and the Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park.
Tanya Dwyer lives in Hidden Circle, whose residents have bought the park. “We’d be in the same boat as Lambert Street and Pine Haven,” she said, “if we hadn’t been able to buy our park.”
Lyman did not speak on the mobile home park rental question.
In other matters, the board voted unanimously to renew the liquor and special amusement license for Amvets Lane‑Dube Post No. 33 at 111 Main St.
The board also approved a liquor license and liquor license catering permit for My Dad’s Place, 458 Old Jay Hill Road. Selectman Tom Goding abstained because he has a business relationship with My Dad’s Place for the Mountain View Blues Bash, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19, at 240 Macomber Hill Road.
The board unanimously approved setting a public hearing for Sept. 28 on adopting the general assistance ordinance and appendices. LaFreniere said this is an annual hearing.
LaFreniere reported that the Maine Municipal Association had awarded Jay third prize for its annual town report.
She also presented a $5,000 grant from the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, which the board accepted, to install signs to help guide visitors and residents to “trails, parks, boat launches, beaches” and the Spruce Mountain Ski Slope.
