Carver Planning Board approves two solar projects, elects new chair at reorganization meeting

CARVER -- April 28, 2026, Carver Planning Board seats new chair and approves two solar special permits. The board elected Alan Jermaine as chair, Mary Ellen Williams as vice chair, and Curtis Lake as clerk at its April 28 reorganization meeting, then moved through a packed agenda that included two solar approvals and a wide-ranging procedural overhaul discussion. The board voted 4-0-1 to approve a special permit for Fuller Stone Street Solar LLC for a ground-mounted array with battery storage straddling the Carver-Middleborough town line, and 4-0-1 to approve a notice of decision for Wareham Street Solar 2 LLC, locking in a decommissioning bond of $452,115, a figure calculated at 125 percent of site-restoration costs with a 2.5 percent annual escalator. Town Planner Sean Lewis briefed the board on a new state requirement that all local governments adopt a consolidated clean energy permitting application by September 20, 2026, noting Carver has not yet begun that process. The King Richard's Fair site plan review was continued to May 12 after two members recused themselves and the peer review memo arrived too late for adequate preparation. Jermaine, citing costs he said drove applicants "to run for their lives away from Carver," called for a Wednesday-before-the-meeting deadline for all peer review submittals and raised the possibility of an RFP for a new third-party engineering reviewer to replace Fuss and O'Neill.