The Logan Township Planning Commission will hold a special meeting next week to allow residents of East Hamilton Lane near Logan Elementary School to comment on a potential new main entrance for a solar project proposed for nearby wooded ground.

The new entrance to the SR1 Capture Sage Holdco and Penn Renewables project on the 69-acre Burgmeier property that includes the derelict Hutchinson Cemetery would be off East Hamilton Lane, just north of its intersection with Duquesne Lane, along an unused alternate township right-of-way for Greenwood Park.

The solar development company had proposed that right of way as a mere emergency entrance for the solar farm, with the main entrance off Burgmeier Drive next to the Sheetz on Sixth Avenue at the foot of the North Eighth Street bridges, but Penelec nixed that entrance because it ran beneath a power line, according to township Planning Director Cassandra Schmick.

The special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the township building on Chief Logan Circle is being held so residents of the neighborhood where the new main entrance may be can make their feelings known, according to Schmick, speaking at a regular meeting of the commission on Tuesday.

“So if there are issues, they can bring them up now, instead of after the fact,” Schmick said.

The township is sending letters to 18 homes along the lane, Schmick said.

The letter urges recipients to “spread the word to anyone who may be interested.”

The proposal for a new entrance would become part of a revised land development plan for the solar farm.

The commission’s role in considering land development plans is advisory to the township supervisors, who decide whether to approve those plans.

The current right-of-way is not a public road, and is not constructed to township standards, according to Schmick.

The attendees at the upcoming meeting should understand that the heavy use of the road and of East Hamilton Lane would be limited to construction of the solar farm, officials said.

Construction would take about three months, the company said previously.

After it’s built, the farm would receive just a handful of visits per year, as the site would be monitored remotely, according to information provided previously by the company and Schmick.

The solar farm would be a quieter presence on the tract than a single house, given that even the smallest families produce daily traffic, said officials, including Schmick and commissioner Wes Barnhart.

The ground proposed for the farm is zoned industrial, where solar farms are a permitted use.

There is a residential buffer between the back of the homes on East Hamilton and that industrial ground.

The township plans to encourage company representatives to make a thorough presentation at the start of the meeting, to minimize misunderstandings among residents, Schmick said.

The proposed new emergency entrance would be off Bennetti Drive.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.