After numerous comments from residents, newspaper reports, and remarks from Councilman Bryan Maher led to a perception that West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh was “in-the-know” about the upcoming solar field project at Mercer County Community College (MCCC), the mayor clarified the township’s minimal involvement in the project’s procedures and bureaucracy.
At Council’s business meeting on Monday, May 14, Hsueh distributed a document showing the chronology of the past month. He also spoke about MCCC’s shortcomings throughout the planning process, not adequately communicating with West Windsor or the residents of South Post Road — their neighbors. Hsueh was compelled to address the issue because council members used the outcry over the solar field at MCCC as a political battlefront, saying that in this case the wool was pulled over West Windsor’s eyes.
In recent weeks Hsueh has seen a departure from the collaborative effort at the April 30 Council meeting, as Maher took shots at him at the West Windsor Republican Club meeting on Wednesday, May 9. Maher’s comments included a suggestion that Hsueh was attempting to appease the interest of Mercer County Democratic leaders who are behind the project. But Hsueh’s record of nonpartisan governance in past years defies that notion, and the mayor had not been privy to the plans all along.
“A year ago all of the elected officials in this region were invited to a legislative session, which I participated in. The president of MCCC (Patricia Donohue) presented the audience with long-term and short-term visions for the college. I remember, she did speak about the plans for the West Windsor campus, but she spoke about innovations in the engineering, sciences, and math curriculum. She briefly brought up the possibility of building a solar energy facility on the campus,” Hsueh said.
Hsueh was not aware of any plans on the college’s grounds until six weeks ago, when residents of South Post Road starting to come forward with their frustrations at MCCC.
“When I first heard about plans for the future of the community college nobody really got into any detail – nothing in terms of engineering design, site, scale, or capacity,” Hsueh said.
On May 14 the mayor explained that MCCC’s campus sits on both Hamilton Township and West Windsor land, but because the community college is considered county and state property special considerations apply.
“Based on my understanding from our township attorney and the planning board attorney, both townships (Hamilton and West Windsor) have no jurisdiction over the independent higher education institution such as the community college here. All of the approvals and all of the things they require are all basically through Mercer County, the county planning board, and the Mercer County Improvement Authority, and then state agencies are involved with the project,” Mayor Hsueh said.
Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert added that the state’s jurisdiction for the solar field project belongs to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the state Department of Education.
Herbert also explained the legality governing the land use. “The solar field is going to be built on the college campus, on a portion of the campus that was farmed for a certain period of time by a local farmer because it was available. My understanding is that there were always plans to put something in that area of the campus. But the township has no jurisdiction over the matter because it involves the public entity (MCCC) and an entity which has jurisdiction over its land, almost exclusively, except for some state and county oversight,” he said.
Herbert says the MCIA is serving as a general contractor for the project because it orchestrated a program to build solar panels on various county properties. “This (MCCC) was one property that volunteered itself for review. The MCIA serves as a general contractor, but of course SunLight General Capital is contracted for the construction of the solar field,” Herbert said.
Hsueh said the college’s reaction was simple: they do not have to come to the West Windsor Planning Board for a review. But while Hsueh acknowledges that there was no mandate for such action, he immediately suggested that West Windsor’s landscape architect, Dan Dobromilsky, be brought on board to provide consultation regarding the berms and landscaping design to block residents’ views of the solar field. Dobromilsky and Pat Ward, West Windsor’s Director of Community Development, met with officials involved in the project on Friday, May 4. In an interview on Wednesday, May 16, Ward said that the township has advised MCCC to plant holly and cedar trees as berms because they naturally occur at the site.
At Council’s May 14 meeting Dobromilsky spoke, mentioning the college’s new plans to shift some of the solar panels that would have been close to residences and keep more trees in place.
“There’s a process that MCCC suggests they go through to evaluate the options for buffering the panels from view, finding out what the most effective means for doing that is,” Dobromilsky said. He added that the township officials are waiting for the college to provide details on when a meeting with residents will take place and how the buffering will be included in the design.
Over the past two months, buffering and berms have been one of the lowest priorities residents want to see addressed. Starting with an online petition and following with a gathering at the Thursday, April 11, Environmental Commission meeting, the voices opposing the project have been heard. While Council had drafted a resolution seeking a courtesy planning board review, residents have held onto hope that the town’s planning board would stand in the project’s way.
Residents of South Post Road attended the Wednesday, April 25, meeting of the West Windsor Planning Board. They asked board members to get involved in the matter, and although the board has no authority to do so Planning Board Attorney Jerry Muller did offer his own legal explanation to residents, echoing more recent Herbert’s assertion.
Residents took one more shot at appealing to county officials as they attended the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders’ meeting on Thursday, May 10, along with Geevers and Maher. On May 14 Geevers told Council that the freeholders were gracious in allowing the residents and others speak about the solar field for nearly 90 minutes although it was not on the meeting agenda.
Hsueh says instead of finger-pointing insinuated by some township residents and Councilman Maher, all along he’s stayed focused on getting answers from Mercer County officials and the community college. On Thursday, April 19 the mayor met with MCIA and MCCC officials. On that same day Maher and Councilwoman Linda Geevers visited residents of South Post Road. The next day, Mayor Hsueh spoke with residents and asked them to draft a list of their concerns.
Between April 26 and 30 Hsueh spoke with DEP Assistant Commissioner Marilyn Lennon twice to discuss the project’s specifications. Hsueh said that the DEP has advised the county, the MCIA and the college that provisional modifications are necessary. The proposed 46-acre site must be shifted slightly west, further away from residential properties along South Post Road.
Ten days later, on Monday, April 30, a letter was sent to County Executive Brian Hughes and the MCIA. Then came the Council meeting which saw several residents and others speak up on the issue (WW-P News, May 11).
On Tuesday, May 1, Herbert went to work drafting a resolution to request a courtesy planning board review to be held at the township’s municipal building. The next day Mayor Hsueh spoke with Hughes over the phone and Hughes agreed to discuss the situation with MCCC officials.
The resolution has not solicited a reply from the college or county officials as of yet. Any chance of a courtesy planning board review or hearing remains unlikely, according to Hughes.
At the Council meeting, Geevers said she does not want the resolution to “just drift into the sunset.” She called for MCCC or MCIA to provide an official written response outlining the next planned meeting.
“I think it’s important for Council to get something back in writing — yes, no, or there is going to be another public meeting. Council had made it very clear that we wanted it to be in the municipal building and some of the details need to be worked out. Maybe we need a stakeholders’ meeting on this to sort it out,” Geevers said.
Hsueh says that the project has already gained approvals from the DEP, and could be waiting for just one more, but there are no pending issues with any governing body stopping the project. In an interview with the WW-P News on Tuesday, May 8, in West Windsor, Hughes stated that the groundbreaking at the proposed solar field’s site was postponed until a third meeting to accommodate concerned South Post Road residents can be held. Once the date of that public meeting is announced, it will likely signal the end of the solar field project discussion.
