Hadley Planning Board Denies Battery Storage Permit on Four Grounds, 4-0-1

HADLEY -- November 7, 2025, Hadley Planning Board denies battery storage special permit on aquifer and zoning grounds. The board voted 4-0 with one abstention on November 7, 2025 to deny the application for a battery energy storage facility at zero Breckenridge Road, with Chair Bill Dwyer citing four findings: the project was governed by the pre-May 2024 version of Article 28 under which battery storage is not a listed permitted use; the applicant failed to demonstrate that 51 percent of stored energy would come from solar generation as required under the Dover Amendment; and the site's location in the Hadley Aquifer Protection Overlay District, proximate to the formerly contaminated Mount Warner wellfield and adjacent to a recently refurbished playground, posed risks "out of proportion to any benefit." In other business, the board unanimously approved a monument sign expansion at 380 Russell Street from 32 to 64 square feet without internal illumination, appointed Nicole Bricume, Shardelle Parmar, and Ronnie Williams to the 40R Steering Committee, named Matt Waldrop as the board's representative on the landfill solar study committee, and opened discussion on a proposed Senior Housing Overlay District bylaw change that would raise the maximum units per building from four to 50, a matter tabled to the January 21, 2026 meeting for full deliberation.