Blandford Committee Advances Six-Month Solar Moratorium Filing

BLANDFORD -- October 8, 2025, Blandford solar committee pushes six-month moratorium as substation expansion draws new development pressure. The committee, which has been working to update the town's 2021 solar bylaws, agreed at its October 8 meeting to advance a draft moratorium letter to the state Attorney General, aiming to halt new large-scale solar applications while the town rewrites its zoning rules. Attorneys had advised the group that a six-month request was more likely to survive AG review than a year, and that the moratorium takes effect the moment it is posted after a town meeting vote. Members set a Friday deadline for comments on a draft prepared by Christina, the town administrator's office liaison, with newspaper submission targeted for Sunday and a possible public hearing by October 30 or 31. The committee also welcomed three prospective members, Richard Meswar, a sanitarian who lives 500 yards from a proposed battery storage site, and two other residents, pending Select Board approval, and flagged that roughly 90 percent of Blandford's land is zoned agricultural, making nearly the entire town theoretically eligible for commercial solar development under current rules.