IMPORTANT UPDATE: Solar Transmission Pole Placement Decision Continued, Again

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
September 4th 2024

RICHMOND – Members of the Town Council, with Michael Colasante absent, voted to continue a request by Rhode Island Energy to install three electric poles and one joint pole, to be shared with Verizon, on Shannock Hill Road.

The council previously agreed, at the Aug 20 meeting, to defer a decision on the joint pole after receiving a letter from attorney David Martland, who represents abutting property owner John Peixinho. The letter stated that Peixinho was concerned about the placements of the pole and guy wires and had not given permission to the utility to enter his property. The council voted to defer its decision until the town received details on the placement of the pole, which is part of the interconnection of Green Development’s new solar energy facility on Beaver Road. Those details still have not been provided by the utility, Rhode Island Energy.

The major issue has been the alteration of the transmission system from the underground wires specified in the application to a new plan to use overhead lines.

The motion, made by council Vice President Richard Nassaney and seconded by councilor Helen Sheehan continued the decision on pole placement, contingent on Rhode Island Energy providing the town information on the exact placement of the pole and guy wires, and secondly, RI Energy providing the town with evidence of ownership or easement to the land where the pole will be installed.

A question remains regarding the necessity of a special use permit for the overhead wires.  The project was granted a special use permit, which would normally require the applicant to go back to the Zoning Board for changes to the plan.

The council agreed to “leave the determination of the Special Use Permit to the Zoning Board if appropriate or when it is applied for.”

RI Energy

Despite its central role in the pole placement discussion, Rhode Island Energy did not have a representative at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Martland said there was already encroachment onto Peixinho’s property, but rather than address the matter, the utility appeared to have simply passed the information on to the developer.

“I provided Peixinho’s survey to Rhode Island Energy to assist them in their development of the plan,” he said. “I’m shocked to find out that they sent the survey to Green Development when Green has indicated that this is a totally separate issue and that it’s not part of their project. I fully anticipated that Rhode Island Energy would be utilizing that to ensure that the placement of the pole with guy wires, anything of that nature, wouldn’t be on Mr. Peixinho’s property.”

Green Development is eager to resolve the pole issue so its solar facility can begin transmitting power, as evidenced by the attendance at the council meeting not only by the company’s attorney, John Mancini, but also, Green Development founder and CEO Mark DePasquale.

DePasquale told the council that the intention had been to keep the lines underground, but that conditions at the site, a very old wooden road foundation in particular, had made that impossible, so the wires would be overhead.

“There’s existing poles that are being replaced, because they’re old,” he said. “That’s what they’re asking for. I’m proposing that we pay - with the owner’s survey, we know where the survey line is too, we have statewide guidance, we know that they’re not going to be on it, existing pole, Pole 15, that’s there, that shows that the guy wire is right on the property line, which Rhode Island Energy could move that when we survey it, but I would pay for the survey to guarantee the poles that are put there are not on his property.”

A History of the Project

Green Development’s application for a special use permit, required to build the project in a residential zone, was first submitted to the town in 2018, and denied by both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board.

The developers appealed twice to Rhode Island Superior Court, and prevailed on their second appeal. The town was ordered to issue the special use permit and construction began almost immediately.

As building got underway, the town, and Peixinho, both petitioned for, and were  granted, a Writ of Certiorari, asking the Rhode Island Supreme Court to review the lower court’s decision. That review is pending.

Who Changed the Plans?

At the council meeting, John Mancini said his client had not made changes to the approved plans, and that the proposed changes were initiated by Rhode Island Energy.

“We have not changed the plans,” he said. “The town did not approve this project. This project was approved by way of the Superior Court. That decision, as the council President has noted, is fully in the hands of the Supreme Court now. It’s going to ultimately determine the fate of that. This is a separate issue.  This issue is completely between Rhode Island Energy and the property owner in question as to whether or not the lines and the location of the poles are properly where they should be, as far as how National Grid, Rhode Island Energy has laid them out. Rhode Island Energy will appropriately respond to it and deal with it in that fashion and we’ll deal with the continuation of the process as it unfolds through the court system.”

Peixinho told the council that he had not received any information from the utility.

“I’m sure, once I get a detailed drawing from National Grid that we’ve been waiting for, we can sign off on it before the next Town Council meeting, but we’re just not getting anything,” he said. “The only things we’ve gotten are narrative comment, intention and statements, but no real drawings.”

Mancini told the council,

“The condition of the approval, if we’re going to go by the conditions of the special use permit, was that all the connections within the solar energy system be underground. They are,” he said. “This is outside of the solar energy system itself. It’s the pathway. Based upon your ordinance, the determination of the utility company is the guiding factor to determine the location, which makes sense.”

Mancini also disagreed that a special use permit would be necessary to move the wires.

“That’s the reason why there hasn’t been an application for a special use permit, and I don’t think that the Town Council has the authority to remand the matter back to the Zoning Board, when there’s nothing in front of the Zoning Board,” he said.

Town Planner Talia Jalette rose several times during the meeting to remind the council that changes to the plan should go back to the Zoning Board for approval.

“The necessity of requesting, or needing to submit a special use permit was communicated to the attorney for Green [Development] in June of this year,” she said.

Peixinho later acknowledged the validity of the reasons for changing the underground wires to overhead, but added that the change should be approved by the Zoning Board.

“The whole agreement was that it was going to be underground, but if you can’t install underground, they have to go back to Zoning,” he said.

Other Business

The council approved, with Helen Sheehan opposed, an amendment to the Code of Ordinances formalizing the Senior Activities Committee. There were a couple of additional changes.

The committee will now have the option of including a member who does not live in Richmond, and the number of committee members was reduced from eight to seven.

Council President Mark Trimmer said,

“If you have a committee that’s going to be voting on things, you need an uneven number, so that you are able to accomplish things and don’t have a hung committee that requires council intervention.” 

The council approved a request by Police Chief Elwood Johnson to lower the hiring age for police officers from 21 to 20.

Members also voted to authorize Town Clerk Erin Liese to advertise for a public hearing on ordinance amendments which will allow the Hillsdale Mobile Home Park to install a crosswalk with pedestrian crossing signs on Gardiner Road.