Feb. 19—SOUTH PORTLAND — Cassie Moon and many of her Dawson Street neighbors had no idea that a 10-acre solar farm had been proposed next door until Portland International Jetport started cutting trees last month to clear a runway approach.
City officials have halted the tree-clearing project near Interstate 295 because it may have violated local, state and federal land use laws. But the scope of tree removal so far — and the potential for 10 additional acres to be cleared for a solar farm — has neighbors feeling disregarded, exposed and vulnerable.
The jetport’s tree removal contractor has cut all but about 30 targeted trees in a 5-acre wooded area accessed at the end of Dawson Street. Massive evergreen and deciduous trees are stacked in neat, snow-covered piles lining the backyards of Moon and her neighbors.
Moon regularly walked in the woods where the trees were cut — she can see the piles from her kitchen windows — and she says wetlands have been filled, a vernal pool has been plowed under and the roar from I-295 has increased exponentially without the buffer of evergreens.
“It has all been destroyed,” Moon said Tuesday. “Nobody notified the neighbors this was happening. This has all been done in a very underhanded way. And with a solar farm it will be even worse.”
Submitted in October, the solar proposal by New Leaf Energy of Lowell, Massachusetts. is still incomplete and likely won’t be ready for Planning Board review until July, said Planning Director Milan Nevajda, who is investigating the tree removal.
Nevajda said neighbors were notified of the tree-removal project when it was initially approved in 2019, but Moon and her neighbors say they have no recollection of it.
Other city officials have serious concerns about the impacts of both projects on the neighborhood and the environment, including Mayor Dick Matthews, who walked the tree-removal area with Moon over the weekend.
“We’re waiting for Milan to peel back the layers of the onion here and figure out exactly what happened,” Matthews said Tuesday.
The city issued a stop-work order Jan. 30, but the jetport’s contractor continued to remove trees into February.
Matthews said he also wants to know more about the $7.5 million solar proposal, including who would benefit from electricity produced by the facility. Representatives of New Leaf didn’t respond to requests for interviews Tuesday.
When city officials notified New Leaf that the jetport had removed trees from an area that would be part of the solar project, company representatives said they were unaware of the tree-removal project, Nevajda said.
The tree clearing and the solar proposal are within a 58-acre wooded tract adjacent to Calvary Cemetery that is owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine. The property at 1561 Broadway is zoned residential, where solar farms are allowed as a special exception with Planning Board approval.
New Leaf’s solar proposal includes a lease option for its project. Jetport officials said they have diocesan permission to cut trees according to Federal Aviation Administration regulations. A spokesperson for the diocese couldn’t be reached for this story.
As concerns about both projects escalated last week, Nevajda posted a lengthy notice Friday on the city’s website clarifying the situation in a series of questions and answers.
“The investigation is ongoing to determine the extent of unauthorized soil disturbance and stump removal in wetlands, and if tree removal exceeded Federal Aviation Administration guidelines,” the Q&A states. Violations may be subject to enforcement actions and fines.
Most of the jetport’s work was lawful and authorized by a 2019 site plan approval, Nevajda said. However, representatives of the Portland airport failed to hold a required pre-construction meeting with South Portland’s planning staff before tree cutting started.
Jetport officials have said they will comply with Nevajda’s inquiry, which includes clarifying whether tree work complied with a municipal tree protection ordinance approved in 2022 and wetlands protection laws overseen by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Because the jetport’s tree project has altered conditions in an area that would be part of the solar farm, New Leaf must submit a new delineation of existing conditions as part of its site plan, Nevajda said.
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