Gregory Lucini, president and CEO of ISM Solar, told Cowesett residents Monday night he can understand why they might be wary of his plan to build a 13.5-megawatt solar farm on 40 acres of the 94-acre Little Rhody Beagle Club.

“From what you read in the papers, you probably don’t trust solar developers,” he said at an informational meeting held at the club bordered by the Kent County YMCA, Royal Crest apartments and single-homes.

Lucini could be right.

Even after all of Lucini’s assurance that studies haven’t found that solar panels and the power they generate could cause cancer or other medical issues, Gary Gliottone, whose home on Blue Ridge Road would abut the development, wasn’t convinced. In addition, despite plans for a 120- to 140-foot buffer between the property line of abutters and the first panel, Gliottone said he would still look down at the solar array. He now looks out at trees – about 17 acres of trees – that would be cleared for the placement of the 34,000-panel array.

Panels are what make up a solar farm, but what makes this project unique and unbelievable to some is what the Little Rhody Beagle Club is prepared to do to make it happen.

The club’s attorney, Robert Flaherty, is even incredulous that the club of 35 to 40 members is ready to give away prime residential zoned real estate worth millions to conserve the land they love and a hobby they want to continue for as long as they live.

“They want to give it to the city; leave it as it is; no Little League; no concessions, no playing fields,” Flaherty said. He said club members are getting old and it is “more of a social thing” than the days when members trained their beagles to pick up and follow the scent of rabbits.

A glimpse of those days was offered in photographs on the walls of the club’s large room where Monday night’s meeting was held. Pictured were gatherings of 50 and 60 people and an equal number of beagles looking into the camera not far from raised rows of rabbit hutches and a hillside lined with trails between waist high shrubbery.

Flaherty explained that members want to continue the club as long as they can but as they age they’re not able to do much of the upkeep and they don’t want to put a lot more money into it. The plan, therefore, is to subdivide the 94 acres retaining the clubhouse and dog runs on about 44 acres and leasing the remaining 49 acres to ISM. Of the ISM parcel, the solar farm would cover 34 acres. Lease payments would underwrite club costs and enable it to carry on.

That wouldn’t last forever. The club would give the 44 acres to the city after 20 years or sooner should the club disband on condition that it is conserved as open space.

The ISM lease is for 20 years, after which it has three f-year renewable options. At the end of the lease, whether ISM still operates the farm or has sold it, that land would also become city open space. The operator would also be responsible for clearing the land of the solar panels. ISM would post a bond to ensure that happens, Lucini said.

What about noise and possible chemical spills, neighbors asked. Lucini said the project, which would be fenced in with black chain-link fence, would have two desk-sized inverters positioned in the middle of the array and as far away from neighbors as possible. The panels don’t generate noise, but the inverters to convert the power from DC to AC hum. Lucini assured the neighbors wouldn’t hear it. The panels don’t contain any liquids and the inverters use a vegetable-based oil, he said.

In response to concerns of the five homeowners bordering the array, Lucini said the beagle club is offering to give them 100 feet of the buffer property to use as they like. It could be a pool, a tennis court or just an extension of the yard, he said. Alternatively, if abutters didn’t want to take title to the land, he thought there could be an easement allowing them certain uses for the land.

Lucini said he hoped to hear from neighbors as to what they want. Gifting of the 100 feet of land to the five abutters is not included in the existing plan. Lucini said if homeowners want to take advantage of the offer, the proposal would be updated.

Nonetheless, some argued the array was too close and asked if the buffer could be extended.

K. Joseph Shekarchi, attorney for ISM, didn’t think that was possible. He, however, thought a study of the affect of clearing the woodland on ambient noise was a reasonable request. Shekarchi also outlined the permitting process for the project, saying it would likely come before the Planning Board in June. The solar array parcel site, now zoned residential, would need to be rezoned industrial with strict provisions that it be used for solar. Following the Planning Board, the City Council would consider the rezoning. First and second council approvals would be needed. Throughout the process there would be public hearings.

Shekarchi said Kent County YMCA is also looking at wind and solar power “down the road” as a means of generating revenues and supporting its operations.

Lucini did not provide a number of trees to be cut down. He said he has talked with Mayor Joseph Solomon and, as an offset, would provide the city with 1,000 trees to be planted where they wanted.

Lucini said the beagle club’s goal to save the property as open space makes this a unique solar array proposal. He looks at that and raises the alternative of a housing development that could mean cut-through traffic for the neighbors or a developer who “could make a lot of money to turn this into the next Royal Crest.”