Uriarra residents deny blocking the Elementus Energy solar company from entering their village to assess the views, as a decision draws near on the controversial solar farm.
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Planning Minister Mick Gentleman visited residents in the village recently and said on Sunday he understood their concerns about the views, but wanted to let the independent planning process run its course before making decisions.
"They are concerned about amenity; they moved there years ago with a view to having that rural outlook and they are very concerned about the possibility of the solar farm going up," Mr Gentleman said, agreeing there was considerable land adjacent to the solar site that was not as close to the village.
Elementus says it could not assess the full impact of its planned solar farm on residents of Uriarra because they banned the company from entering the village.
But resident Michael Friedrich rejected the suggestion. He said after discovering someone from the company “running around taking photos” of the village in October, including of front yards, residents had placed “private property” signs at both entrances.
Elementus managing director Ashleigh Antflick then requested access for February 6. He was told the community would discuss the request on February 24, but Mr Antflick responded that he would do his February 6 assessment from Brindabella Road instead without entering the village.
Both sides agree on that much, but Mr Antflick said he was still waiting to hear back on his request for access, whereas Mr Friedrich said the community never met to consider the request because Mr Antflick had made it clear he was doing a partial assessment instead.
“We’ve always said that we’d try to work together, we’re trying to obtain a win-win situation,” he said.
Mr Antflick said he had simply been abiding by undertakings he had given residents not to enter the village. He didn’t want an argument, he said. “We think we’ve done some good work here” with a project that would bring big benefits for all Canberrans.
Submissions on the company’s development application close on Friday, August 1. Residents are vehemently opposed to the siting of the solar farm directly across the road from the 100-strong rural village and in their line of sight. Mr Friedrich said the highest point in the village was 40 metres higher than the solar array so residents looked straight down at it.
“You can’t screen that out,” he said. “There are trees there that are 20 metres tall in that area already and we can see straight over the top of them.”
“We bought out here because it was so unique, it’s in the middle of the ACT and we’ve got all this beautiful bush around us. The view, although it can be easily dismissed by people who don’t live here, for us it’s special.”
Residents are also concerned about the fire risk of the bank of trees being planted between the village and the solar panels as screening. On the other three sides of the village, they are required to maintain a 300-metre clear buffer against fire. But the screening trees would be on the fourth side, alongside the road, the only escape route in the event of a fire, Mr Friedrich said.
“We’re really concerned about the bushfire hazard. It’s a catch 22, To try and screen the solar farm the only way they can come up with to screen it is to plant trees. But where they’re planting trees is right where our exit is in the event of a bushfire, so it actually adds to the risk,” he said. “If those trees were to catch alight in a firestorm or fall on the road, how do we escape the village?”
Residents wanted the solar farm pushed back 300 metres.
The company’s development application says the nearest houses are 100 metres from the solar farm, but Mr Antflick said the distance to the nearest solar panel was actually 152 metres. Half of the homes were more than 500 metres from the nearest solar panel, he said.
The solar farm will contain 37,000 panels (an earlier story incorrectly said 72 panels).