Solar-panel plan draws heat in N.J.

From the fields that Ed Stella Jr. owns in Upper Pittsgrove, Salem County, "miles and miles and miles of farmland" stretch in every direction. Stella wants to take 512 acres out of production to erect 80 megawatts of solar panels. The change, he said, would be "like a grain of pepper in the saltshaker."

The proposal has irked some farmers and officials in a town known for fiercely guarding its identity as an agricultural community. They worry Stella could be the first of many developers to convert the region's sunny fields of spinach, corn, and sod into power generators.

Though construction could be a ways off, the solar development would be the state's largest and one of the biggest nationally. Stella and his partners with the upstart Atlantic Green Power are seeking a variance from the town's land-use board.

"Do I think this one will destroy agriculture in Upper Pittsgrove? No," said Eric Kern, 39, a land-use board member and fourth-generation Upper Pittsgrove farmer. "But the other seven applicants waiting in the wings might."

The debate raises questions about how to balance two goals: to preserve New Jersey's agricultural economy, and to increase its role as a leader in solar energy.

New Jersey lawmakers have pushed for more renewable-energy production, building incentives, and clearing away regulatory hurdles.

Most notably for Upper Pittsgrove officials, the Legislature last year deemed solar generation an "inherently beneficial" land use, stripping them of the authority to deny a project if it does not benefit the local community.

They can still turn it down if granting the variance would jeopardize the town's master plan, which sets protecting agriculture as priority No. 1.

Stella's partners have pitched their project as an extension of that goal. They say it would increase tax revenue to the town, ease the burden on water resources, and give the land a rest.

Solar power "is agriculture," said chief operating officer Scott Byrne. "You're harvesting the sun."

That is proving a hard sell in a town where nearly everyone is a dirt-under-the-fingernails farmer or related to one.

At their March meeting, land-use board members put off a ruling to hire experts to evaluate the project. They could decide by next month.

Two applications for smaller-scale utility projects have been submitted in Upper Pittsgrove and neighboring Pilesgrove, where more are expected. The proposals have caught the attention of state officials.

Farmers and developers call the Department of Agriculture almost daily asking what the rules are.

"It's got the farmers on edge," said Peter Furey, executive director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. "It's got the town planning boards in a quandary. And it's kind of new. We never really had these questions."

Stella is not a subtle man. The son of a Berlin farmer known for growing some of New Jersey's best sweet corn, he owns one of the largest land-clearing operations on the East Coast. He likes fast cars, races offshore powerboats, and plans to turn a picturesque barn at his home on Route 77 into a "party room."

"I do everything to the extreme," he said.

Building a more modest project isn't an option. He wants "to make it a showpiece, like I do with everything else."

In November, Stella entered a 25-year lease on the Upper Pittsgrove property with Atlantic Green Power, of which he is the largest shareholder. The lease would pay him $1.3 million yearly once the panels are all producing. He would get an additional $7.5 million when the project secures all approvals, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company has an option to buy the land for $29 million.

Unlike other developers poking around the region, Stella said, Atlantic Green Power is not interested in flipping the property to a larger company. Stella wants to maintain ownership and develop more projects, though he would not give details.

The 512 acres along Routes 40 and 77 make up about half of what Stella owns in town. On a tour, he points out fields of spinach, corn, and peach trees that would be replaced by solar panels - enough to cover 56 football fields.

Stella said he had received much bigger offers - up to $90 million - from housing developers.

"It's not about the money," he said. "This is what we need. . . . We need hundreds of thousands of acres of renewable energy."

Why put it on agricultural land? It has to go somewhere, he said.

"Any rational person" knows that solar power, as a general concept, is a good thing, said Upper Pittsgrove Mayor Jack Cimprich.

"The problem is, we still have to do what's best for our township," he said. "We don't want to have to fix the world's problems in our backyard."

Or, in Bruce Bishop's perspective, on the town's most fertile soils.

Bishop, 51, is a sixth-generation Upper Pittsgrove farmer who grows potatoes with his brother, Tom, on 150 acres leased from Stella.

He would not mind solar panels at the eastern end of the project site, where the soil is poor for vegetables. But he worries about the good soils he leases at the west end, and about the precedent the project could set.

Take good farmland out of operation, and the remaining fields get squeezed, he said. Crop rotations become shorter, and soil quality decreases.

"If this happens, there's going to be a lot of good ground lost," Bishop said. "It'll really change things."

If the plan is approved, Stella has said he would put a deed restriction on the property so that, if the panels were removed, the land would go back to farming.

If not, the company has said, the alternative could be 150 houses, 627 miles of roads, and 188 children in the school system.

"I'd rather see this [solar project] than housing developments front and back," Doug Nichols, 60, whose home on Route 77 is sandwiched by Stella's property, said at an informational meeting this month.

Stella, whose farmhouse would abut the panels, said he wanted to do right by the town.

But some residents resent what they say is the threat to develop the property and are wary of the company's promises. Atlantic City Electric built a substation and transmission lines last year that some neighbors say are more invasive than they were led to believe they would be.

Among the things the land-use board wants studied is how the project would connect to the regional electric grid.

The company cannot pursue an agreement with a utility to buy its power until it secures local approvals, Stella said. It has only just begun the process to get permission to connect to the grid.

Neighbors Robert and Lori Lawyer, 33 and 32, who moved to Daretown Road about three years ago, hope the project stalls. They see little community benefit in exchange for the loss of agricultural land.

"You don't take those solar panels, bunch them up, and put them by your front door" in the fall, he said. "You do that with corn."