Association fights Alchemy Farm solar project

EAST FALMOUTH — Alchemy Farm is a quiet residential community designed to promote sustainability, preserve agriculture and enhance wildlife habitat. But members of the farm’s neighborhood association are complaining that one property owner isn’t obeying their covenants or the town’s bylaws.

Joe Hackler and Karen Schwalbe, who own a quarter-acre lot at 8 Solar Way in Alchemy Farm, have never built a home on their land, but have operated a commercial solar venture there since 2016.

The pair live in a farmhouse they own on Hatchville Road.

There has been plenty of communication with the town on both sides of the issue, which is slated for discussion next Thursday by the Zoning Board.

The Alchemy Farm Neighborhood Association filed a complaint on the commercial use in their midst last fall, which prompted Falmouth Building Commissioner Rod Palmer to issue a cease-and-desist order for the solar operation on Feb. 6. Palmer also issued an order to dismantle a pole barn on the property.

Palmer said the building permit requested by Hackler and Schwalbe in 2016 specifically stated the plan was to build a barn to house animals, feed and hay. The attorney representing Hackler and Schwalbe in 2016 said that even though there wasn’t a principal residence on the lot, a barn for agricultural use was allowed under the property’s agricultural zoning.

But the barn is instead being used to store solar panels, construction material and debris, Palmer said.

“There is no evidence of agricultural use nor does the structure resemble the drawing you submitted with your application,” Palmer wrote on Feb. 6.

On Wednesday, Palmer said the solar panels on the barn had been removed since his order. Large panels sitting on top of telephone pole-like supports remain in place on the property but have been disconnected from the grid, he said.

Schwalbe and Hackler have not removed the barn and instead have asked the Zoning Board of Appeals to overturn Palmer’s order to knock it down. The hearing on the request opened May 2 but was immediately continued to next Thursday, since the pair said they were working on plans to turn the barn into a residence.

Alchemy Farm consists of 16 acres, which were divided in 1996 into 13 small house lots ranging in size from a quarter-acre to a half-acre. Following the “co-housing model,” the remainder of the land is commonly owned by the Alchemy Farm Neighborhood Association and supports a communal activity house, a children’s play area, woods and organically farmed tracts.

The homes that have been built since the subdivision was approved are tucked into the landscape and surrounded by gardens and trees. Most face south and are equipped with solar panels. There is scattered evidence of the subdivision’s agricultural mission, including a small pen of goats, and chickens running free.

The roads are gravel and driveways dirt, grass or loose stone. Some land is being cultivated by the homeowners and the rest is leased to nearby Coonamessett Farm.

“In the last three years of this project, the applicant of the appeal repeatedly violated our association’s covenants for structures, making the structure different than proposed to the town and different than proposed to our association,” Earle Barnhart, one of the founding members of the cluster community and clerk of the neighborhood association, wrote in a letter to the Zoning Board last month.

“We believe that the applicant does not really intend to complete construction of a residence,” Barnhart said. “At a recent meeting, the applicant asked if our association would consider approving only finishing the exterior cladding of the residence, so that the structure would look like the simple barn that was initially proposed three years ago.”

Zoning Administrator Noreen Stockman said a number of association members have recently come in to discuss what’s been going on at 8 Solar Way.

Both Hackler and Barnhart declined to comment beyond the letters in the zoning department’s file.

The Zoning Board will open Thursday’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the selectmen’s meeting room in town hall.