Seletmen to discuss Exelon questions

MEDWAY - Selectmen are scheduled to meet early Monday morning to discuss their responses to a state board’s questions about Exelon’s proposed expansion, including whether they support zoning bylaw exemptions for the height of the stacks and the setbacks.

The state Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB), in a Nov. 20 document, asks the town a series of 17 questions and requests for information, including the town’s feelings on Exelon’s requests for exemptions from zoning bylaws.

Proposed as part of Exelon’s proposed expansion of its Summer Street power plant are 160-foot stacks, a 55-foot sound wall and another 20-foot sound wall.

Per the town’s zoning bylaws, however, a building cannot be more than 40 feet high in the industrial zone where Exelon plans to build.

Also violating the zoning bylaw is a 20-foot sound wall, which is proposed to be built less than 30 feet away from an existing daycare center on Summer Street.

The questions directly ask the town if it supports or opposes Exelon’s bylaw requests.

The EFSB also asks, however, if there are conditions to include in the board’s final decision if the project is exempted from the bylaws.

To date, Exelon has not submitted any documentation with the Zoning Board of Appeals, and selectmen have said they do not expect the company to do so, as the EFSB has the statutory power to rule on such matters.

Also asked is if the project is compatible with the town’s 2009 master plan, which directly mentions Exelon.

Goal 6 of the master plan to attract new and existing business to increase the town’s industrial and manufacturing base reads, “Identify key personnel at Exelon and work with them to encourage revival of the expansion of the peak electricity generating plant.”

A similar project was permitted a number of years ago, but it was never built.

Also included in the document is a goal to protect the town’s natural resources.

“The reduction and prevention of pollution at all levels is a goal that makes sense from both health and budgetary perspectives,” the document states. “Short-term gains in growth and/or tax revenue that produce potential long-term harm to Medway’s environment must be avoided.”

Per a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, Exelon will pay the town over $75 million over 20 years.

If permitted to run to its proposed 60 percent capacity, the plant could emit almost 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other chemicals, but Exelon officials said the plant will only run at 43 percent on a three-year rolling average with the possibility to run 60 percent in a given year.

Selectmen Chairman John Foresto said Friday that the answers are already drafted and the board was just set to review them Monday.

On the bylaw requests, Foresto pointed to the Host Community Agreement singed by Exelon and selectmen last month that provides funding for fire department training, equipment, and other items but also stipulates the town’s cooperation with Exelon.

Foresto said town counsel should determine on Monday whether or not selectmen would violate the agreement by opposing the bylaw exemptions.

“It’s a contract between us and Exelon,” he said. “For us to walk away from it at this point in time would be a breach of contact.”

Zachary Comeau can be reached at 508-634-7556 and zcomeau@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZComeau_MDN.