While the major item on the West Windsor Township Council remains the annual budget, some residents are planning to appear at the meetings on Mondays, April 15 and 29, to register new concerns with the solar energy field now being constructed on the campus of Mercer County Community College.
The field drew opposition from neighbors, particularly those on South Post Road, when it was first proposed last year. Now that the project is underway, their concerns remain, according to Teresa Lourenco, who described what she considered to be “very stressful” issues in an E-mail advisory to the media.
Among the residents’ concerns:
Light pollution. “What, if anything,” asked Lourenco, “is MCCC willing to do to help us with the blinding stadium lighting and parking lot lights shining in our backyards due to the destruction of over 130 trees? These stadium lights should be turned off when not needed. They are a complete nuisance to the neighborhood.”
“We need to see the draft of the plans as to where they will plant hundreds of trees to help mitigate this intense lighting problem they created for us.”
Sun glare. “Now that 33,000 nine-foot solar panels are in place near homes (less than the 300 feet they promised), sun glare is a huge problem. When are the buffering trees to be planted by the fence line? Is this really the fence our landscape architect requested? It should have some kind of mesh fabric to camouflage this huge shiny metal utility. We so badly needed berms and trees (also promised to us by MCCC).
Drainage. “What permits are required to fix our drainage problems in the freshwater wetlands as stated by Mastec Construction Company?”
