JAY — The Planning Board, code officer and the board’s attorney have developed ground rules for participation at Tuesday’s public hearing on New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission’s application for a shoreland zoning permit.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Spruce Mountain Elementary School gym.
The board accepted the company’s application for the permit as complete April 13. Members decided to allow any person wishing to speak at the hearing to do so as long as they follow the written rules.
The company will give an overview of its application. The Planning Board will have an opportunity to ask questions. A public comment period will follow. In order to speak, people are required to raise their hands and wait to be recognized. In order for accurate minutes to be kept, each speaker will be required to say their first and last names and spell the latter, according to written rules.
Residents and taxpayers of Jay will be given five minutes to speak, all others will get three minutes. It will be at the board’s discretion, if a person is allowed to speak more than once. Only comments directly related to the company’s compliance with two sections of the town’s Shoreland Zoniong Ordinance will be accepted.
About 7 miles of the proposed 145.1 mile high-voltage, direct current transmission line from the Quebec border to Lewiston is to run through Jay, though not all of it falls under the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. The line would connect to the New England power grid to bring “clean, renewable energy to Massachusetts consumers,” according to developers. The cost is estimated at about $1 billion.
This is the second application submitted for the project. In January 2020,Central Maine Power Co. submitted an application that the board tabled before CMP withdrew it. A new application was submitted by New England Clean Energy Connect on March 22.
The project crosses the Resource Protection District around the Fuller Brook north and south of Belanger Road in east Jay and will involve the installation of four of the proposed 44 new transmission line poles. The project will also cross a Stream Protection District and another Resource Protection District without any new poles installed. The line will run in an existing corridor that will be widened by 75 feet.
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