A year after developer Megawatt Energy submitted a preliminary application to build a solar energy facility just outside of the Hollister city limits, near Union and Cienega roads, the project is getting closer to breaking ground.
County planner Michael Krausie, who has been working with the developers since the project’s preliminary application, said the county planning commission conditionally approved the project on Aug. 17.
“Right now the applicant has turned in building plans and is working with me in regards to meeting all of the conditions and working with building in regards to ensuring all of the correct codes are met,” Krausie said.
The proposed project site at 2120 Cienega Road would be built on three separate, but contiguous land parcels and would be developed with the intention of selling power back to Pacific Gas & Electric, according to the application submitted last February.
The developers are proposing to construct and operate a 1.5-megawatt solar photovoltaic energy-generating facility. The 32.1 acres are proposed to have 7,560 photovoltaic solar modules on 252 mechanical supports that track the sun. Each tracker will be equipped with 30 PV modules.
Part of the property now houses residential structures as well as a paintball facility that would continue to operate.
Krausie said the project has remained mostly the same since the preliminary application and will still produce 1.5-megawatts. It has shifted its footprint to allow for a right-of-way if the city of Hollister extends Westside Boulevard in the future. Both county and city officials expressed concern that the original footprint contained solar panels through what may become an extension of Westside Boulevard.
Krausie said the developers have worked with county officials and the parks commission on establishing an easement along the San Benito River that will be used for future development of a river parkway.
“They requested that conditions of approval be developed and established for that easement,” Krausie said. “It is in the approval notice and (the easements) are shown on the site plan so it is conditioned that way.”
One other condition of the project is that the developers need to include a decommissioning plan to deal with the site once it is no longer used before it is approved to begin construction.
Krausie said the condition came from planning “to protect the public welfare to make sure the site is restored.”
He said there is no timeline for when the developers are expected to complete the work with the building department and start construction on the project as it is based on when the developers turn in the final documents.
“They’ve been moving along pretty good. I expect they will continue that,” Krausie said.
Whitney Bibbins, who was listed as a project manager on the preliminary application, did not return a request for comment on the project by The Pinnacle’s press time.
The initial application included a report by a biological consultant, Ed Mercurio, of Salinas. Based on a visual inspection on the proposed project site and surrounding area, on foot, Mercurio said there were no environmental concerns.
“Most of the San Benito Smart Park property is highly disturbed, rural, non-native grassland habitat,” Mercurio wrote in his report. “The disking of the land three times a year for weed control is a major contributing factor to its disturbed state.”
Mercurio noted that the project would be set well away from the riparian habitat of the San Benito River bed, which runs along the edge of the property.
In the application, the developers, who worked with Kelley Engineering on the initial proposal, anticipated it would take 90 days to complete from the start of construction. The property owners include Lantis & Ward, LLC, Christopher Roland Chick and Michelle E. Chick. The project applicant is listed as Megwatt Energy, LLC, of Martinez. Bibbins is listed as the main contact person.
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