Photo: Sutton’s heavy concerns – Resident Alistair Henchman (left) and Sutton and District Community Association President Mark Burgess (right).
Sutton residents are concerned a state significant solar farm should not go ahead without a requirement on Council to draw up a developer contributions plan to fund a bypass.
RES Australia proposes to develop a 100-megawatt solar farm on a rural property located approximately 3.5 kilometres north of the ACT and seven kilometres north-west of Sutton in Yass Valley.
Residents have made submissions to an Independent Planning Commission (online and convened January 29th via video) about their concerns that without a bypass, truck movements will increase over the long term because of the solar farm, compromising safety and amenity.
“Irrespective of whether people support or oppose the proposed solar farm, our problem at the moment is that Council have not prepared a Contributions Plan for the bypass, so it is difficult for developers to make a contribution to the bypass as we don’t know what it will cost. Therefore, the approval conditions should also require Council to prepare a Contributions Plan for the bypass,” Alistair Henchman.
Nicole Brewer, Director of Energy Assessments with the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment described the project as “large scale” with around 260,000 solar panels at four metres high and a substation.
“The company’s said that the project will operate for around 35 years, but the proposed conditions allow that as long as the development footprint and height remains the same, infrastructure could be replaced or upgraded to take account of more efficient technology. In this case, the development footprint is 185 hectares. The investment is almost 120 million, and the company, RES Australia, has offered to pay community contributions to Yass Valley Council of $1.26 million for community enhancement projects,” said Director Brewer.
DPIE has referred this proposal to the Independent Planning Commission with a recommendation to approve.
There are recommended conditions which seek to mitigate the impact of increased traffic (heavy vehicle) movements through a requirement to monitor the condition of the existing roads and repair them. This condition is relevant to the construction phase because if the development is approved it will likely be built before Sutton has a bypass.
However, some residents warn the approval also allows for up to 10 heavy vehicle movements per day during the operational phase which will last for decades.
“At the moment Council are the main barrier to us achieving a bypass. Council need to act now to undertake a preliminary design for the road so that a Contributions Plan can be developed,” said Mr Henchman.
Local residents also believe Council needs to take the required steps to acquire the land required for the bypass.
“If they don’t do this now, we will miss contributions from traffic generating developments which increase traffic through Sutton and may also miss the opportunity to secure the route through alternate uses being established on the land,” warned Mr Henchman.
Yass Valley Council responded swiftly that a Contributions Plan does exist and was adopted at its meeting of March 27th 2019. According to Council’s General Manager, Chris Berry, this plan provided for all development to make a financial contribution (equal to 1% of the capital value) toward infrastructure across the Yass Valley; including road infrastructure.
“The problem with a Development Contributions Plan for road infrastructure is that the project only contributes based on their proportional share of the traffic increases. Existing through traffic and local traffic will not make any contributions,” Mr Berry explained.
“In addition, the impact of traffic associated with a solar farm is mainly associated with construction. Once construction is completed, this traffic will no longer occur.”
However Council does have a separate Community Enhancement Fund Policy which allows money to flow to the community from State Significant Developments such as the solar farm.
“The CEF allows for annual contributions (based on 1% of the capital value) to be made over the operational life of the project primarily for community facilities and infrastructure within the vicinity of the project via a Voluntary Planning Agreement. The annual contributions are increased annually in accordance with CPI,” stated Mr Berry.
For the Springdale Solar Farm, Sutton village is included within the vicinity of the project.
This could shine a light on how to partly fund the bypass.
“Under the voluntary planning agreement, funds for a bypass of the village could be directed to this project. The CEF Policy applies rather than the Development Contributions Plan,” Mr Berry concluded.
A VPA has been drafted based on the following: Annual contributions being made over the operational life of the project (estimated to be 30 years) for Local Projects.
Local Projects are any projects proposed to be carried out within the Yass Valley Council local government area and located within 20kms of the Springdale Solar Farm which are aimed at enhancing any aspect of the local environment including, but not limited to, ameliorating any impacts from the Springdale Solar Farm; or providing any community service or facility or benefit or educational assistance which may include the building of a Strategic Fund to develop a single or expensive Local Project that will require significant upfront or multi-year investment.
Public submissions to the Independent Planning Commission closed last Friday.
The Commission is the consent authority for state significant development applications for which there are reportable political donations, objections by the local council or more than 50 public objections.
“We will endeavour to determine the development application as soon as possible, noting that there may be a delay if we find that additional information is required,” advised Commissioner Professor Zada Lipman during his address to the meeting with Sutton residents.
