Blandford Planning Board Approves 4.04-Megawatt Solar Facility on Chester Road

BLANDFORD -- November 25, 2025, Blandford Planning Board approves 4.04-megawatt solar facility at 89 Chester Road on a 4-0 vote with one abstention. The board granted a special permit Tuesday to Peoples Brook LLC for a large-scale ground-mounted solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage system on 25 acres of a 32.6-acre agricultural parcel owned by Lloyd Martin and Mary Martin. The three-hour session was dominated by negotiation of conditions, most notably a requirement that Blue Wave Energy submit a landscaping plan stamped by a registered landscape architect within 45 days, with plantings spaced at a maximum of six feet on center in a staggered pattern along Chester Road, tighter than the 10-foot spacing in the draft conditions. The board also confirmed a $30,000 construction monitoring escrow, a decommissioning surety at 125 percent of a qualified engineer's removal-cost estimate, and a $1 million insurance requirement naming the town as additional insured. The permit required a four-of-five supermajority; the board met that threshold with four affirmative votes.