Old Lycoming Township is a step closer to having an 8,000-panel solar farm hooking up to PPL distribution on Daughertys Run Road.

Two of three supervisors, David Shirn and Richard Metz, recently approved the project’s conditional-use zoning at a hearing at the fire hall.

Daughertys Run Road Solar 1 LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Leaf Energy Inc., is the applicant.

Supervisor Justin Kastner abstained due to his stated conflict of interest.

The supervisors set several conditions regarding safe operations the developer agreed to abide by.

Fourteen nearby property owners received notice through letters, some of whom had questions and asked supervisors to delay granting conditional use.

The developer needed conditional use because the proposed use is neither listed nor prohibited within the township residential agricultural district and is not provided for under the zoning ordinance.

The township has a draft solar ordinance in the works and is planned for 916 Daughertys Run Road on about 45 acres. There is a cell phone tower, borrow area, wooded land and open fields.

The project would generate electricity and tie into the existing PPL distribution onsite.

Among several conditions for supervisors listening to residents was to ensure the setback of 500 feet from any parcel with an existing residential structure. The setback is from the property line and not the residential structure.

Other conditions set by supervisors were that work on Saturdays will start at 9 a.m. for the duration of the construction time.

The applicant must submit a transportation construction plan to the township and the zoning officer. The plan will coordinate deliveries to and from the project site and include local school bus routes.

The applicant must also:

• Submit a decommissioning agreement prior to the issuance of building permits that is satisfactory to the township.

• Have noise abatement placed around the inverters.

• Engage and consider a pilot program both with the township in the county.

• Submit a vegetative maintenance plan to the township and the zoning officer.

• Submit an emergency maintenance plan and abide by eight items in the memo by civil engineering firm Light-Heigel & Associates Inc.

A resident was concerned about any impacts to the fresh water springs and a private well.

Once it would become operational, there would be biweekly visits to the site that will not create a nuisance to pedestrians or vehicles. The site will be monitored remotely.

John R. Poff, engineer with Light-Heigel, said the project requires a zoning permit, a building permit under the Uniform Construction Code, a land development plan, a stormwater management plan, a national pollution discharge elimination permit and erosion and sedimentation control plan approved through the county Conservation District, developers will be required to post financial security for certain improvements to ensure they occur, including stormwater management facilities. Under the stormwater ordinance, they will need an operations and maintenance agreement recorded in the courthouse that assures stormwater facilities are maintained and in conjunction with that the NPDS permit will require a post-construction stormwater management plan, Poff said.