A solar array is seen Friday on South Beech Hill Road in Pittston. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

PITTSTON — Pittston residents can vote Wednesday on a moratorium that could put a pause on solar farms in town until a new ordinance is made.

The vote, which would be retroactive from June 12, is set for 6 p.m. in a special town meeting before the Select Board meeting.

At a public hearing earlier this month, town officials heard differing opinions. Some believe the solar panels will damage the environment and people’s health, while others see it as an opportunity to add value to their land and save money on energy bills.

If passed, there would be a temporary pause on solar energy facility applications until a plan is made on how to handle solar farms in town.

“We have three (solar farms) coming through the Planning Board. It’s new to them, it’s new to the Select Board,” said Jane Hubert. “We are not banning them, but figuring out what we are doing. How do we follow up with (the solar farms)? After 25 years when it’s no longer in use, how do we take care of that? How do we work the set up so it’s comfortable to the neighbors and people in town? We need the time to research that.”

The ordinance review committee’s chair, Autumn DeVries brought the moratorium forward as a recommendation to the Select Board in early June.

Next door to Pittston, the town of Chelsea recently established extensive guidelines for residents to follow if they choose to have more than one solar panel on their property and details how to deconstruct it when it’s no longer in use, which is a similar approach to what Pittston is looking to create in its ordinance.

The moratorium defines solar facility as a facility that uses one or more solar collectors to convert solar energy to electrical energy.

Jim Lotheridge, a resident, member of the Planning Board, said he knows of at least four solar farms in town.

“One was put in with not a single word to the town,” said Lotheridge. “I happened to be driving by and saw a solar farm. Long story short, they had to come before the board and add trees to  the site line. It’s not as good as it should be, but it’s there … There are three sites where we have done our very best, but it would be better with an ordinance.”

Pittston has a solar array ordinance for permitting, but it doesn’t go as far as creating guidelines for having more than one panel on property. The town charges $50 for a solar permit and 15 cents per square foot of solar panel surface area.

Planning Board Chair Marlene Colvin spoke at the public hearing on the need for the ordinance. When the board gets applications for solar projects, the code enforcement officer has to turn to state law, which can at times become confusing for the town to navigate.

“The CEO has to look at the state law every time something comes to the Planning Board and it makes it difficult,” said Colvin at the hearing. “We want to be fair to everyone and whatever application comes through, we want to be fair. This is an effort to take a step back and say, ‘We don’t have a solar ordinance, but we need one.'”

The Ordinance Review Committee will work with the Planning Board to establish new guidelines and try to bring a draft to the Select Board before Dec. 12, when the 180 days of the moratorium is up. If needed, the Select Board can extend the 180 days by a vote in a regular business meeting, which came as a concern to a few citizens in the public hearing who wanted there to be a say in an extension.

Hubert said to the Kennebec Journal that she wants to bring it to the town for discussion before the Select Board takes any action and urged people to bring their research to the Ordinance Review Committee meetings, and or, the Planning Board meetings.

“One of the citizens asked about (bringing it to the town) and I would be interested in having input for a vote and special town meeting. The way it’s written now, the Select Board would have authority without the vote of the people, but I certainly want information from the people in what they are saying,” she said.