Members of the public look over the plans for a hybrid solar and chicken farm during a conditional use hearing held by the Muncy Creek Township Supervisors at the Muncy Area Volunteer Fire Company. The public meeting was about the proposed chicken/solar farm at Clarkstown Road in Muncy. The chicken farm will house about 250,000 chickens total in the 5 barns at the facility. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Only one of the 11 proposed solar panel array areas of Bollinger Solar, would be used for agrivoltaic purposes on a site on Clarkstown Road in Muncy Creek Township.

Agrivoltaics is the practice of using land for both solar energy production and agriculture, simultaneously.

According to testimony this week at the continued conditional use hearing for the solar part of the project, John Zartman, an engineer with Kimley Horn, Philadelphia, answered Michael Wiley, solicitor for the township, who asked Zartman how many of the 11 solar array sections were going to serve an agrivoltaic purpose, and Zartman replied, “one,” and it would cover four acres.

It meant the design indicated the remaining 10 solar projects on the proposed solar energy farm were not connected to a proposed concentrated animal feeding operation, called a CAFO, consisting of five barns, each housing 70,000 chickens for a total of 350,000.

Under another question from Wiley, Zartman said there were two far smaller megawatt-producing solar projects in the township, none of which had agrivoltaic elements.

Additionally, the applicant, based on a question from Wiley, said it would not be seeking a waiver for the sound or a variance for the zoning ordinance on this proposed site.

Zartman was the lone witness for the night, but Samuel Wiser, attorney for the applicant, who spent much of the night asking Zartman direct questions related to the proposed project and the zoning ordinance, said he planned to present further witnesses at the next hearing.

His testimony focused primarily on answering questions about the compatibility of the solar farm for this property as well as details of an analysis done on glare and noise level assumptions.

According to the applicant, the solar project is an appropriate use, under the township zoning ordinance, and would be compatible with adjacent tracts of land and properties.

Solar is considered to be “low-impact” to the neighbors and once the solar equipment is decommissioned years from now the land would be returned to its original purpose — agriculture and farming, he explained.

In terms of noise, the solar project would emit a “low hum” from “string inverters and transformers,” Zartman said.

The project would be estimated to be below the noise decibel level threshold, he testified. The nearest “noise sensitive” property is along Clarkstown Road.

Based on a noise level analysis, noise mitigation would not be needed as it would be near or below 42 decibels, he said.

The two access roads into the site were identified on the plan as for emergency vehicle turnarounds.

The applicant would need “a minimum-use driveway permit from the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT),” Zartman noted. The project would be designed with appropriate off-street and loading areas, he said.

His testimony included elements of the plan’s screening and buffering — both existing vegetative screening on the site, such as existing tree line over the top of existing wetlands, and future plantings of species such as arborvitae that could be given in more detail should the project move to a land development stage. The buffer would circumnavigate the property, providing protection for the residents and limiting exposure of the 52,000 solar panels from the road.

Zartman testified as to the requirements for the setbacks on front yard, rear yard and side yard as required in the ordinance.

Under cross-examination by attorney Zachary DuGan, representing the Muncy Area Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, a group working to stop the project, Zartman was asked to explain what aspects related to the glare study and glint analysis.

Zartman said that glare was broken into three levels — green, or a low potential for after image; yellow, or potential for after image; and red, concentrated — and he noted the solar panels don’t focus on the sun in that (red glare) manner.

Most of the panels were listed on the green glare level and some were green and yellow, but on the lower end of the scale. In certain portions of the project area glare was assumed to affect a motorist’s vision.

Flash blindness could cause a driver to temporarily lose vision, right? DuGan asked.

“It’s possible,” Zartman said, adding, based on the study, it would be similar to looking at snow or water on a bright day.

The glare model does not account for drivers in trucks with the model looking at vehicle drivers five feet, with truck drivers sitting higher.

The next testimony also will have the zoning officer clarify a conversation with a recused township engineer.

Sunny Side Farms LLC., a joint venture of the Bollinger and Wagner families, of Lancaster County, as the project is named, will have a separate company, AgVentures, manage the daily CAFO operations, based on prior testimony.

The land in question lies along Clarkstown Road, between Fogleman Road on the east and Muncy Exchange Road on the west. It is a quarter of a mile from Ward L. Myers Elementary School in Muncy borough. It also is located near about 300-plus single-family homes and several businesses located primarily on Clarkstown Road.

Residents and others in eastern Lycoming County have expressed concerns about the potential impact to their health, safety and welfare as a result of thousands of chickens possibly resulting in flies, dust and air quality, biohazards, increased truck traffic and safety aspects for those traveling the nearby roadways, potential impact of manure seeping into the groundwater table and getting into neighboring well water supplies.

The next hearing is strictly for the CAFO. That hearing, a continuance of the conditional use hearing process, will begin at 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 (note time difference before it started at 6 p.m.), at the Muncy Area Volunteer Fire Co. The solar farm continued conditional use hearing begins at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20 also at the same location.