Lehman Township’s Zoning Hearing Board this week voted against a conditional land use approval request for a solar farm that has been vocally opposed by residents concerned about how it would affect their property values.
“You will make my home unsellable,” Roaring Brook Road resident Moriah Strenfel told the board during a packed hearing Monday night, showing the crowd the view of the field near her home with images of solar panels stacked on top of it.
Susquehanna Solar, a South Carolina-based company, sought the approval so it can build a 46-acre solar farm in an A-1 agricultural district.
The company's request was unanimously denied by the three members present: Brian Dorian, Fred Valentine and John Hanish.
Board members declined to discuss the decision with reporters after the meeting.
Susquehanna Solar has not decided whether it will appeal the board’s decision, Director of Operations Jon Wadsworth said.
Long hearings, strong feelings
Monday's hearing was the third on the proposal, each drawing a vocal audience.
The first was rescheduled after around 200 residents filled the township’s municipal building and spilled into the parking lot. The township moved its hearings to Misericordia University to accommodate the crowd.
The second, held Friday, was continued until Monday after five hours of discussion. About 100 residents turned out on Monday, many wearing red stickers with the words, ‘Ban Big Solar.’
That hearing also lasted about five hours.
Residents petitioned, researched and some reached out to lawyers in their efforts to fight the project.
Linda Bevan lives on Roaring Brook Road, which borders the proposed project site. She and her husband Ken “researched everything they could think of” about solar energy before the hearings.
“Somebody was calling the fire department and then somebody else was calling different departments that were all over our county,” said Linda. “And we touched and called every single department you can imagine.”
Ken said they had a group of around eight residents who met weekly to “brainstorm our plan of attack.” They called the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), said Ken, to name a few.
Several residents questioned whether Susquehanna Solar, a South Carolina-based company, could be trusted to take care of complications like panels breaking or fires as they came up.
Moriah Strenfel's husband Eric raised concerns that Susquehanna Solar could sell the property to foreign investors that would not handle maintenance issues from overseas.
“This is the nightmare scenario happening in small towns all across America right now. We have the chance to keep our small town integrity and stop this all from happening,” said Strenfel.
But residents’ biggest concern was property values, as his wife pointed out, noting the panels would be 150 feet from her home.
“And if you do this, why do we even have zoning ordinances in place, because you’re not protecting us as residents and you’re not protecting our properties,” she said.
Strenfel asked residents whether they would rather have a view of an open field or a solar farm. The whole crowd, including hopeful 117 House District Representative Jamie Walsh, raised their hands for the field.
Walsh, whose race for state representative hasn’t finished after nearly four months since the primary, has been a vocal opponent towards Susquehanna Solar. He said he has been to every hearing for two of the developer’s projects, the one in Lehman and another in Nanticoke.
“They keep saying, ‘Let’s be a friendly neighbor’ or ‘a good neighbor.’ Well, in my opinion, what they mean by ‘good neighbor’ is to depreciate the property values around [the solar project] and come and offer you a deal to buy [your property] and expand [the solar project] ... they’re just going to eat this township up like Pacman,” said Walsh.
He also mentioned state HB 2104, which hasn’t had any movement in the state legislature since 2022. The bill provides guidelines for decommissioning solar panels once they are obsolete.
“I just want everybody in here to know that this is already a problem on the radar for the state of Pennsylvania and they know it, but it isn’t moving in Harrisburg,” said Walsh.
Susquehanna 'disappointed' with denial
Susquehanna's Wadsworth admitted he was not expecting the zoning board to deny the conditional use application. It would have been the first, but not final, step toward starting construction.
“We’re disappointed with the decision … but we are happy with, you know the fact we were able to witness an informed township and people came and they voiced their opinion,” Wadsworth said. “I think it was good for democracy for us to be able to plainly discuss the differences.”
In a separate development, Nanticoke City Council will vote on Susquehanna Solar’s other proposed Luzerne County solar farm this evening at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
