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Bethel Township’s zoning hearing board on Tuesday denied a proposed 5,000 solar panel farm situated in Bethel and Swatara townships.
It’s unknown if the project, proposed by German multinational energy conglomerate RWE, will still move forward on the portion of land in Swatara Township.
The proposed conditional-use variance for the project lost by a 2-1 vote at a Sept. 2 zoning hearing board meeting. Board chairman Gary Lentz and member Wesley Harding Jr. voted against the project and Richard Rabuck voted in favor.
When LebTown asked Lentz after the meeting why the board voted against it, board solicitor Michael J. Gombar Jr. advised Lentz not to reply. Gombar said no comment was necessary in case RWE officials appeal the decision during the 30-day appeal window.
A RWE official said during the hearing that RWE is one of the five largest renewable energy companies in the United States and its parent company’s global footprint is even larger.
During public comment near the end of the nearly hour-long hearing and before a 20-minute executive session to discuss the project at Gombar’s recommendation, Lentz said he was generally opposed to solar farms being built on agricultural lands.
About half of the land in Bethel Township is zoned agriculture, according to township zoning officer Jackie Hollenbach. Neither Harding nor Rabuck explained their votes during the hearing.
“I have a personal conviction that these solar farms should not be on agricultural (zoned ground),” Lentz said. “I think it should be on commercial zoned lands.”
The conditional-use variance was sought by the German-based company because solar farms are only permitted in Bethel Township on lands zoned as C-1 (retail business), C-2 (highway commercial), and M (manufacturing), a policy that was adopted by township officials in 2023, according to Hollenbach.
The proposed facility would have been built at 80 Fortna Road on part of a 122-acre farm owned by the Fortna family. An RWE official said during the hearing that the panels would be situated on about 30 of the 68 acres needed for the project.
LebTown asked RWE solicitor Morgan Madden of Harrisburg-based Babst Calland if the project was dead given the board’s vote. She said that was still to be determined.
That means that a hearing on Sept. 17 in Swatara Township, for now, is still on. That hearing was announced during testimony at the Bethel Township hearing. It was also noted that Swatara’s zoning ordinances, unlike Bethel’s, allow solar farms on ag-zoned lands.
During the hearing, Brian Conlan, an engineer with Langan Engineering, said relief was being sought in Bethel Township for the project for several reasons.
“We’re split townships, of course, where Swatara does, you know, permit the solar farms by the conditional use, and we do have that hearing, we still have to go through their procedures, of course, later in September,” Conlan said. “But using only that portion of the farm, if you will, and the stream I mentioned, we are limited at what they could do on this particular property. … To get an actual project, they couldn’t just build it on the Swatara piece. That’s one of the hardships, if you will, (and why) we’re asking for relief.”
The Solar, Wind and Alternate Energy section of Swatara Township’s municipal code states that “the use of solar, wind and alternate energy systems is encouraged within these regulations and permitted within any zoning district.”
RWE representative Alexis Hochheiser testified that the Fortna farm is ideal for the project because the land is relatively flat and the property could remain unaltered. Later in the hearing, co-worker Zak Poston noted that solar projects are sought on ag lands because they don’t have to be cleared like forested grounds, adding that they also provide farmers additional sources of revenue.
Dennis Fortna testified that the land is owned by his siblings, who formed an LLC after their parents passed away. His brother lives on the farm, he noted.
“We’re still gonna raise corn, soybeans, plus we also raise beef cattle on the farm. … We’re going to keep the operation going,” Fortna said. “We’ll have enough land outside of the solar farm to continue our operations of what we have.”
Hochheiser told Madden during questioning that the proposal would not be detrimental to the local community and would benefit it as well as the landowner, who also raises wheat on his farm.
“It gives them the right to what they want to do with the land. It gives them ease of, like options of what they can do with it, farming or again leasing, still making that income,” Hochheiser said. “During construction, we hire local firms, same with our engineers, to build the community there. And then it is green energy, so the local grids will be a little bit stronger with that energy supply into it.”
Madden asked if the local grid would receive the energy for community use.
“It would be delivered to the local grid directly. If community solar were to get passed, that has been in legislation for quite some time in Pennsylvania, then our – the community – would directly benefit from their homes, but at this time it would go directly to the local distribution or substation point,” Hochheiser said.
It was noted during the hearing that this property was sought for a solar array because it is in proximity to a “huge substation” that’s being built about a quarter-mile from the Fortna farm, and that it’s common practice to construct solar farms near substations. (Met-Ed did not immediately respond to a LebTown request seeking confirmation and details of the project.)
Dew Mist Farms
During a busy meeting, the zoning hearing board unanimously approved a large-scale expansion for a dairy operation at Daryl Martin’s Dew Mist Farm at 216 Chestnut Hill Road.
The board approved a special exemption to merge two farms into one to “make the operation an intensive animal husbandry operation,” according to Gombar, and to consolidate those properties for tax purposes.
Martin testified that he was expanding to provide for his children’s future and that growth would double his current operation over time. He told Gombar that there would be about 500 milking heads, 400 to 450 young stock and 70 dry cows when the operation reaches its capacity.
A milk truck currently comes every other day, and that would change to every day as the operation grows, with feed trucks coming more often, too. Feed is delivered every seven to eight days, he said.
Martin told Gombar that the expansion is for his dairy operation only and that no new chicken houses, of which he currently has two, would be constructed. He also noted that his Concentrated Feed Animal Operations paperwork had been filed with the conservation district, and he would follow the same guidelines for manure management, which is to spread it on his fields while also selling it to what he called manure importers.
Gombar asked him if he was willing to provide landscaped buffer zones, to which Martin replied affirmatively. When a motion was made to approve the project, Gombar asked the board if they wished to amend the motion to include a buffer requirement, but no action was taken in that regard since Lentz noted that the property was a good distance from any neighbors.
Other actions
In other business, the board voted unanimously to:
- Grant two variances for the Jeremy Spade property at 354 W. Main St., Fredericksburg. The variances will permit Spade and his family to live in a travel trailer on the property until April 2028 while also allowing for construction of a storage shed at that location. The granted uses are contingent upon construction of a permanent residence at that address by April 2028. Spade told the board he’s already hired a contractor and his new home should be finished within eight months.
- Permit a horse barn to be constructed by John Lapp at 149 Short Road, Lebanon, to house horses used for travel on local roadways. Lapp requested and was approved for a 50-foot variance for the necessary 150-foot setback for the barn.
- Continue until Sept. 30 a hearing concerning two proposals from Bell & Evans. Those two projects are for a garage at 109 Fredericksburg Road and for cold storage/processing plant facilities at 241 Blue Mountain Road.
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