Chestnuthill Township supervisors heard testimony at a conditional use hearing Tuesday night about a proposed solar farm in Effort.

The solar farm would be on a 25-acre parcel of a larger 126.59 acre property owned by Connie Merwine along Merwinsburg Road in Effort. Merwine and Effort Energy Initiative LLC want to place a 3MW Community Solar project on the acreage.

William Swanick, an engineer with Herbert, Rowland and Grubic Inc., testified for Effort Energy Initiative that the solar panels would take up 15 acres, but with the 100-foot buffer around the panels included, the entire solar farm would be 25 acres. A fence will encompass the solar farm.

The majority of the 126-acre property is forested, and about half of it is hillside and steep slopes. The acreage for the solar farm is in a flatter section accessible only by an established easement off Pheasant Run Road.

On Oct. 17, the supervisors passed a new ordinance restricting where solar farms would be allowed in the municipality. The new ordinance restricts them to light commercial areas in an effort to preserve farmland. Merwine and Effort Energy Initiative submitted plans for the solar farm prior to the ordinance and gave a presentation to the Planning Commission in September.

The ordinance requires a solar farm to be on a minimum of 10 acres with setbacks of a 100 feet from neighboring property lines. Swanick said the closest property is 130 feet away.

It also requires no more than 75% lot coverage.

“This would be far less than 75% lot coverage,” Swanick said.

The ordinance also has a 40-foot maximum height restriction for structures. The top edge of the tilted solar panels will be 10 feet at most above the ground, Swanick said.

“Well below the 40-foot max,” he said.

About two dozen residents attended the hearing, according to David Albright, Chestnuthill Township manager.

“Some of them I have seen at other meetings regarding solar matters because they have questions or concerns about it,” he said.

One resident asked about the permeability of the ground due to the solar farm.

Swanick said the panels are elevated on posts, so they do not prevent water from permeating into the grass.

Swanick also said there will be a stormwater collection basin along the lower edge in the event of excessive runoff.

If a panel gets broken, a technician will fix it within 72 hours, Swanick said.

A resident expressed concerned about the 72 hour response time, because she thinks that’s too long. Supervisor Carl Gould II asked if the response time could be reduced to 24 hours. Swanick said that a solar panel automatically shuts off if it gets broken. Michael Gaza, the attorney for Effort Energy Initiative, said they would look into reducing the response time.

As for being able to see the solar farm from either Merwinsburg Road or Pheasant Run Road, Swanick said most of it is blocked by the shear distance and topography. The land is also heavily forested. The only area Swanick thought people might see the solar farm was from two residential properties on Winter Court near Pheasant Run Road.

Gaza asked John Barborek, an employee at MHK Attorneys, to go over the work he did to check the sight lines of the solar farm. Barborek explained that he inflated pink balloons and attached them to posts along the PPL easement road on the edge of the proposed solar farm. This elevated the top of the balloon to 13 feet above the ground. Going into the lot where the panels would be is currently forested.

With permission from a property owner on Winter Court, he visually searched for the balloons both with 5x zoom on his iPhone 15 and with the naked eye. He said he could barely glimpse a couple of the balloons and showed the supervisors photographs of what he saw.

“I was doing my best to try to see them,” Barborek said. “Anybody can stand in their backyard with a pair of high-powered binoculars and see what they want to see.”

According to the application submitted to the township, the energy generated will go back to the local substation and available to local users.

The supervisors have 45 days to render a decision.

Supervisors meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, however, it would be too soon for this hearing’s outcome to be on the agenda. The supervisors need time to review the testimony given and confer with their township solicitor, Albright said.

The project is different from the one proposed by Effort Solar in Polk Township along Long Mountain Road, where a potential substation in Chestnuthill Township is part of the application.

Staci L. Gower contributed to this story.