Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources is developing model bylaws for solar photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage systems to serve as a resource to municipalities to regulate solar and BESS facilities in compliance with state law (M.G.L. Ch. 40A, Sec. 3) and the Small Clean Energy Infrastructure Facility Siting and Permitting Draft Regulation (concurrently under development) and accompanying DOER guidelines.
The draft model bylaws are available on DOER’s website:
• Draft Model Bylaw for Solar
• Draft Model Bylaw for BESS
The DOES states that the bylaws are intended to provide a model for cities and towns considering solar or BESS zoning bylaws. While the bylaws are intended to be able to be adopted largely as published, municipalities may wish to tailor the bylaws they adopt.
On Oct. 21 at 2 p.m., the DOER and consulting team will host a webinar to provide an overview to a model BESS bylaw and proposed changes to the DOER’s solar model bylaw.
The DOER welcomes written comments on these draft model bylaws through Nov. 14. Comments can be emailed to [email protected] with “Model Bylaw Comments” in the subject line.
The DOER and its consultants welcome comments on all aspects of the model bylaws. The DOER offers the following questions as potential areas for feedback:
• Use tables
– Are there project iterations that should be treated differently under the model use tables? If so, what is the correct permitting regime and why?
– Are the classes and tiers for solar facilities and BESS appropriate breakpoints for the sizes? Should there be new classes or should any classes be combined?
– Are there additional types of common zoning districts that should be added to the use table?
• Setbacks
– With the understanding that the setbacks for solar facilities and BESS are suggested values, should they be larger, smaller, or remain the same? Why?
– Are there other abutting uses that should command larger setbacks? (Please note that solar facilities and BESS would also be regulated by other state and local regulations that may require setbacks, such as wetland buffer zones.)
• Other
– Are there topics that are not addressed in the bylaws that should be addressed? (Please be as specific as possible, potentially including your preferred bylaw language.)