Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / The site of the proposed Chestnut Avenue solar farm at the intersection with Juniata Gap Road is above the billboards.

A solar farm may be coming to the city.

The Cresco, Pa., company that wants to build it received a variance to do so from the Zoning Hearing Board this week.

Altoona Land Development LLC would build the 488-panel array capable of producing 342 megawatt hours per year on a narrow, nondescript patch of hillside wedged between the northern end of the barbed-wire-encircled former Immigration and Customs Enforcement armory on Chestnut Avenue and the lower terminus of Juniata Gap Road.

Originally listing an address in Ebensburg, the company has owned the property since 2001, and has tried to interest businesses in locating there, but the cost of excavation and dirt removal has made that unfeasible, even when the resulting fill dirt was offered for free to excavating companies, according to the narrative written by company managing member Brian Welsh that accompanied the variance application — and online corporation records from the state.

“If they do not have someone very close that can use it, they do not want it,” the narrative states about the dirt. “It costs too much to truck it long distances.”

Moreover, there is only one access point, and being the neighbor of a (now vacant) facility surrounded by barbed wire “is not a good look, for example, for a child care or other type of use that is more sensitive to aesthetics,” the narrative states.

“Otherwise, the property is in a great location,” the narrative states. “It has a good traffic count and normally would be (fine) for a commercial business or industrial warehouse.”

The owners have been approached in recent years by three companies that wanted to build a solar farm there, according to the narrative.

The solar developer now considering the project has been “more serious,” and has helped the owners apply to Penelec for interconnection to the grid — although the hope is to be able to provide the electricity it would produce to one or two nearby businesses at a discount, according to the narrative. One of those businesses has already agreed to such an arrangement, according to the narrative.

“We believe that the best and highest use for this property would be (the solar farm),” the narrative states.

The solar farm won’t require prohibitive excavation, and while it won’t take advantage of the heavy traffic count, the panels won’t care about the proximity of the barbed wire.

ICE used the city-owned property for acquisition, testing, issuance and maintenance of firearms, ammunition and other law enforcement equipment, plus seized weapons from 2017 until early this year.

The property is zoned industrial flex.

The variance was needed because there is no provision in the new zoning ordinance for solar farms.

The city supports the proposal, according to Community Development Director Eric Luchansky.

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