The Norwood Conservation Commission on March 5 approved an Order of Conditions for a proposed solar photovoltaic facility at the closed Winter Street landfill, located at 0 Winter Street (DEP file 251-0568). The applicant is TES Winter Street Solar 23 LLC; the project was represented to the commission by Rich Tabasinski of Atlantic Design Engineers.

The project is sited in the buffer zone to an adjacent bordering vegetated wetland and near Winter Brook, a cold‑water fishery. The applicant presented a stormwater addendum with revised calculations and a set of on‑site stormwater measures the team said reduce post‑development runoff to below predevelopment rates for the 2‑, 10‑, 25‑ and 100‑year storms. Rich Tabasinski said the plan adds a four‑bay pretreatment unit to capture runoff from an existing paved stockpile area and reduces an existing spillway from 8 feet to 7 feet, “which kept more water in the basin… and reduce[d] the rates of runoff going off the site.” The consultant showed a table in the addendum indicating a 1.9 cubic‑feet‑per‑second reduction for the 100‑year storm and smaller reductions for other return intervals.

Why it matters: the site sits over a closed landfill and adjacent to wetland resource areas; conservation staff and the town engineer framed the measures as intended to protect wetlands and the nearby stream while allowing the solar array to proceed.

Town engineer Mark Ryan and public works staff reviewed the revised designs and told the commission they were satisfied with the stormwater revisions. Mark Stinson of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection told staff he was not concerned about placing panels in the disturbed buffer area but that he was focused on stormwater treatment; Stinson said the location is already disturbed and that the revised treatment plan addressed DEP concerns.

The commission read and attached special conditions recommended by staff. Carly, the commission’s conservation planner, read the conditions into the record, including: “All relevant state and local permits must be obtained prior to the start of work. Because solar array construction is prone to erosion, routine inspections by an individual CESSWI or a CPESC, a PWS or a PE at least every 14 days and the results shared with the conservation planner. Compost filter socks shall be inspected after a half inch or greater of rain. Straw bales shall be used instead of hay bales. And finally, grass shall be overseeded with native seed and mowing only shall occur 1 to 2 times per year in order to produce a pollinator meadow in the jurisdictional land underlying the solar array.” The applicant indicated acceptance of those conditions.

Formal action: a motion to issue the Order of Conditions as presented was made and seconded; the roll call vote recorded Kelsey Quinlan — Aye; Anil Prasad — Aye; Kalima Mustapha Woodburg — Aye. The motion carried and the public hearing was closed. The applicant did not provide a firm construction start date in the hearing; the representative said that start timing would be determined by other parties and that the team had been “anxious to get the approvals to get things going.”

Context and next steps: the commission’s approval attaches the written special conditions and requires routine inspections and long‑term revegetation (native overseeding and reduced mowing to support a pollinator meadow). The town engineer and DPW will continue to coordinate technical oversight; permits from state and local agencies remain required before construction begins.