Community Benefits Plan

Contents

What is in this plan

1. 1Executive Summary
2. 2Identified Community Priorities
3. 3Benefit Commitments
   1. 3.1Equipment and training for Charlton Fire
   2. 3.2Support for a senior and community center
   3. 3.3Roads: repair what construction damages, guaranteed by a bond
   4. 3.4A fully accessible park and playground
   5. 3.5Historic preservation of town-owned sites
   6. 3.6Private well testing and a well protection guarantee
   7. 3.7Conservation funding beyond required replanting
   8. 3.8Protections for close neighbors
   9. 3.9A structured post-construction review
   10. 3.10Predictable annual payments to the town
   11. 3.11Local hiring and local trades during construction
   12. 3.12Paid training slots for local students
   13. 3.13The Citizen Advisory Committee continues for the life of the facility
   14. 3.14A named community liaison from now through operations
4. 4Monitoring and Accountability Framework
5. 5Sustainability and Long-Term Impact
6. 6Appendices

Carpenter Hill Power is a proposed battery energy storage facility at 131 Carpenter Hill Road in Charlton. This plan sets out what Charlton gets for hosting it, how each item gets checked, and what happens if something slips.

The project in one paragraph

The facility stores electricity from the regional grid and sends it back when the grid needs it. It is rated at 150 megawatts and 600 megawatt hours, enough stored energy to serve up to 120,000 homes for about four hours. The current design uses 136 Tesla Megapack 3 units on a fenced area of about 5 acres or less, inside a 15-acre leased area on a 47-acre parcel, next to the existing Carpenter Hill substation. Construction would take 12 to 18 months. The project is in the state's pre-filing engagement period under 980 CMR 16.00, ahead of an application to the Energy Facilities Siting Board.

What this plan is

Massachusetts siting rules require the project to pursue a community benefits plan with the host community, following the state's Standards and Guidelines for Community Benefit Plans and Agreements. This document is that plan, in draft. It lists the benefits the project proposes for Charlton, where each one came from, and the terms that make it checkable.

It is not the permit, and it does not replace the studies, permit conditions, and mitigation the project has to deliver whether or not this plan exists. Those are listed separately at the end of Part 3 and are not counted as benefits. It is also not a signed agreement. Whether items in this plan move into a signed agreement between the town and the project is a decision the town and the project make together, with review by the Select Board and the Town Administrator. The state siting board gives due weight to a plan developed with the community, and the state's guidance encourages signed agreements that include remedies for non-performance. Where a card gives a job to a town board or department, that is a proposal. No board has agreed to it, and each one decides whether to take it on.

Four terms that get mixed up, and how this document works

Four terms come up in every conversation about benefits, and they get mixed up. Each one is a different tool, held by different people.

The plan is where ideas get shaped in public. The agreement and the permit are where they get locked. Money for the town can travel by either of two roads: a PILOT or standard taxes for the payment every host town receives, and a signed agreement for the benefits on top. This plan says what is proposed on both roads. The town chooses the vehicles.

How this draft was built

Every priority in this draft traces to something a resident, a town board, a town official, or a state reviewer said on the record between April and September 2026. Two cards are the project's own proposals and are labeled that way. Where the project set a number itself, such as a distance or a number of days, it is a starting point for comment. The record: the state pre-filing consultation on April 9, the Select Board on April 14, the Planning Board and the first Citizen Advisory Committee meeting on June 3, the first public community meeting on July 8, the second committee meeting on August 4, the fire safety webinar on August 19, the state agency consultation on September 4, Old Home Day on September 6, the third committee meeting on September 10, and first conversations with the MassHire workforce board, the regional planning commission, and Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School. Part 2 lists the priorities and where each came from. Part 6 lists every meeting.

The committee spent most of its third meeting, on September 10, working on what the plan should contain. It has not reviewed this text. The draft goes to the committee and to the whole town at the public forum on September 30, when public comment opens and runs through the end of November. A revised draft goes to a public meeting of its own in early November, and a final draft is published when comment closes on November 30. We respond in writing to every comment. We are also asking every town board to review this draft, especially the Planning Board, because many of its terms touch their work.

The burdens this plan responds to

• Fire and emergency response. At every public meeting since June 2026, residents have asked whether Charlton Fire has the equipment, training, and water supply to respond to this facility. The plan answers with equipment, training, and a pre-energization check that the Fire Chief controls.

• Private wells and groundwater. Charlton's history with groundwater contamination makes this the sharpest concern at every public meeting. The plan answers with baseline and ongoing well testing at the project's cost, and a guarantee if a well is affected.

• Trees, land, and habitat. Replanting to offset the project's own clearing is mitigation, not a benefit. The plan answers with conservation funding beyond what mitigation requires.

• Construction traffic and roads. Twelve to 18 months of construction traffic on Carpenter Hill Road, with heavy loads concentrated in the site work and delivery phases. The plan answers with a road condition survey, repairs at the project's cost, and a bond that guarantees them.

• A fair return for hosting. Committee members said in June that Charlton already hosts more than its share of energy infrastructure, and residents do not see lower electric bills for it. The plan answers with predictable annual payments to the town and with benefits residents can use.

• Commitments that last. Residents asked for commitments that survive a sale of the project. Part 4 explains how permit conditions, agreement terms, and the decommissioning bond run with the project to any future owner, and how this plan can only be changed upward.

The floor rule

Once the town and the project sign an agreement, the money, the years, and the terms in it can go up. They cannot go down. The money is set as a rate for each megawatt the project builds, so the town's deal holds if the size of the project changes. Until an agreement is signed, the floor is the structure of this plan: its categories, its review process, and its remedies. Everything above that floor, including which programs the money funds and who delivers them, stays open to change every year through the public review in Part 4. A plan that can be quietly weakened is worth nothing, and a plan that cannot change stops fitting the town. The floor rule is how this plan does both.

Every priority below was raised by a resident, a committee member, a town board, or a state reviewer. Priorities are inputs to this plan, not commitments. Part 3 shows which ones became commitments and what shape they took.

How the priorities map to the state's four categories

The state groups community benefits into four categories. Not every category applies to every project, and the guidance says so. Here is where the priorities land.

This is the core of the plan. Each commitment answers the same questions: what changes and for whom, how anyone checks, when and for how long, who decides how it is used, where the money comes from, and what happens if it slips. Words in brackets are decisions the committee and the town still have to make.

How to read a card

The first four questions are how the plan applies the SMARTIE standard the project committed to in April: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable. The fifth question, what happens if it slips, is there because the committee asked for it in June. Every card also states its funding source, which the project committed to on August 4. Each card carries a status: worked with the committee, drafted by the project from the record, raised but not yet shaped, or proposed by the project.

Three kinds of card

Cards marked Benefit are things Charlton gets on top of what the project has to do. Cards marked Protection go beyond required mitigation but exist because of the project's own impacts, such as road repair and well testing. Cards marked Accountability are structures that keep the rest of the plan honest. All three are commitments. The plan labels them so nobody mistakes one for another.

Required mitigation, not counted as a benefit

The project has to do all of the following whether or not this plan exists. They are tracked on the public Commitment Tracker so residents can see them, and they are listed here so the line between mitigation and benefit is visible. None of them is part of the floor.

Every card above has a row on the Commitment Tracker once it is agreed, and the tracker is where its status changes first.

This plan runs for as long as the facility does. It is built to change, under two rules: the floor cannot drop, and everything above the floor is open. This part says how progress gets checked, how anyone proposes a change, who decides, and what happens when something slips.

The floor

The floor is set when the town and the project sign an agreement. It is the rate the project pays each year for each megawatt it builds, [rate to be set], the number of years the payments continue, [term to be set], the share committed to each category if the plan sets shares, and every other term in that agreement. A rate for each megawatt means the town's deal holds if the size of the project changes. Until an agreement is signed, the floor is the structure of this plan: its categories, its review process, and its remedies. Once set, the floor can be raised or extended. It cannot be reduced, narrowed, delayed, or made conditional on something new. Commitments that law or a permit already requires are not part of the floor and are not counted as benefits.

What can change

• Which specific programs the money funds.

• How much goes to each program.

• Who delivers a program.

• The schedule of spending inside the committed term.

• What we measure and report.

• Anything new the town or residents want added.

The annual review

Every year, for the life of the facility, there is a public review. At least 30 days before the review meeting, we publish a written report covering the year. It says what was delivered, with the numbers. It says what was missed, with the reason. It says what we propose to change for the coming year, and why. The meeting is open to everyone, held in Charlton, in the evening, in a place people can get to. The Citizen Advisory Committee runs its part of the agenda, and anyone can speak. Within 30 days after the meeting, we publish the decisions, including which proposed changes were adopted, which were not, and why. The community liaison prepares the report and owns the schedule.

Reviews that happen off the annual schedule

• A commitment misses its deadline.

• A change to the project changes its impacts on the town.

• 25 or more Charlton residents ask for one in writing.

• The Town Administrator, the Select Board, or the Planning Board asks for one.

• The Citizen Advisory Committee asks for one.

• A post-construction review finding is not fixed by its date.

How anyone proposes a change

Anyone can propose a change to this plan, at any committee or public meeting, by email to jsantiago@esa-solar.com, through the form on carpenterhillpower.com, or in writing to Carpenter Hill Power, 1135 Townpark Ave, Suite 2125, Lake Mary, FL 32746. You do not have to be a committee member, a town official, or an abutter. In return, we publish your proposal on the site within 10 business days, in your words and without your name if you prefer. We answer in writing within 30 days, and the answer says yes, no, or that we need more time and by when. We do not answer a proposal by ignoring it. When the answer is no, the reason is published, and the proposal stays on the record for the next review to pick up.

Who decides

The town and the project decide together whether a proposed change is adopted. The Select Board and the Town Administrator review changes on the town's side, and any town board can weigh in, especially the Planning Board. The Citizen Advisory Committee advises and does not negotiate on the town's behalf, which matches its charter. Three things are fixed no matter who decides: no change takes effect before it is published, the committee sees and comments on any proposed change before it takes effect, and a change that drops below the floor is not available to either side.

When we miss something

Missing a commitment is not handled by dropping it. When a commitment misses its deadline, we say so in the next quarterly update rather than waiting for the annual review. We publish why. We publish a new date. The commitment carries forward at full value, so a year we underspend does not become a year we keep the difference. If a commitment turns out to be impossible rather than late, we say that plainly, and its value goes back into the plan for the community to redirect through the process above. It does not disappear.

How progress gets reported between reviews

• The Commitment Tracker at carpenterhillpower.com shows every commitment, its current status, and a link to the proof. It is updated as things move, not once a year.

• A quarterly update goes out by email and is posted on the site. Everyone on the email list already gets one; this plan keeps it going through construction and operations.

• The annual report described above.

• Meeting notes for every committee and public meeting, posted after the meeting.

• Reports and the plan itself are published in plain language. Translation is available on request, and the request line is listed on every report. Spanish and Portuguese are offered by default.

How to raise a concern or a complaint

Raising a concern is separate from proposing a change, and it is faster. The community liaison card in Part 3 sets the terms: a named person, a response within 10 business days, a same-day response on a separate line for anything happening on the site right now, and a public summary of concerns and response times every quarter. If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can take it to the committee, the Town Administrator, or the state siting board, and we do not treat any of those as going around us.

How commitments become binding, and what survives a sale

Three things carry commitments past the people who made them. Permit conditions the siting board attaches to its decision. Terms in any agreement the town and the project sign. And the decommissioning bond the owner posts before construction. All three run with the project, so whoever buys it inherits them. We expect to sell the project before construction, and we have said so since April, which is why writing things down properly matters more here than it would if we were going to operate the site ourselves.

Whether items in this plan move into a signed agreement is a decision for the town and the project together, with review by the Select Board and the Town Administrator. The state's guidance encourages signed agreements and says they should include remedies for non-performance, such as escrow releases or financial penalties. Where a card in Part 3 proposes a remedy, it is a proposal for that negotiation, not a promise of the town's signature.

Construction, operation, and decommissioning

The review process runs through all three phases. During construction, reviews happen quarterly instead of annually, because that is the phase where the town feels the most disruption and the most needs adjusting quickly. During operation, the review is annual, with the post-construction review card adding a deeper look at one, five, and ten years. Before decommissioning begins, the plan gets a full review covering what happens to any commitments still running and what the site becomes. Decommissioning funding is secured separately through the bond and is not part of the floor.

The most useful benefits are the ones still working in year fifteen. This part says how the plan keeps benefits alive for the life of the facility and how it adapts without weakening.

Recurring over one-time

Where the committee has a choice, this draft leans toward annual commitments over single payments. An annual line item is visible every year and builds a working relationship between the town and the owner. A single payment disappears into one fiscal year. The agreements from other towns in the Document Library show both patterns, and the recurring ones are the ones residents can still point to years later.

Life-of-facility terms

The fire allowance, the program support, the committee, the liaison, and the review cycle are written to run for the operating life of the facility, not for a fixed number of years, unless the town prefers a term. Repowering the facility with new equipment extends its life and extends these terms with it. Decommissioning ends them, after the full review described in Part 4.

A community fund

[Open question for the committee: whether the annual amounts in this plan are paid into a single fund the town holds, with the Council on Aging, the Historical Commission, the conservation partner, and Charlton Fire drawing on it under rules the town sets, or paid to each recipient directly. A single fund is simpler to check and easier to redirect at the annual review. Direct payments are simpler for each recipient to plan around.] The state's guidance does not require a trust fund or endowment, and this draft does not propose one, but the committee can.

Adapting without weakening

The floor rule and the annual review work together. The floor is what the town can count on. The review is how the town changes everything above it as Charlton's needs change. Charlton's needs twenty years from now will not be Charlton's needs today, and a plan that cannot move will stop being useful long before the facility stops operating.

Passing stewardship on

The state's guidance asks that community oversight not depend on a few people. The committee's membership is open, its roster is public, and anyone who accepts the responsibilities in the charter can join at any time. [Open for the committee: whether it wants a rotating chair, and whether it wants to reserve seats for younger residents.]

The record behind this draft. Everything here is already public on carpenterhillpower.com, and the links go to the live versions.

A. Engagement to date, and what is coming

B. Documents this plan rests on

• The Commitment Tracker: every promise made in public, its status, and its proof. carpenterhillpower.com/commitments

• The Engagement Log: every meeting, what we heard, and what we did. carpenterhillpower.com/engagement-log

• The Document Library, including the state's Standards and Guidelines for Community Benefit Plans and Agreements, the minutes of the committee meetings, and the agreements other towns reached with battery projects: the signed Medway and Carver agreements, the Tewksbury agreement (that project was withdrawn in September 2026), the Revere agreements as approved by its city council, and the Chelsea council order. carpenterhillpower.com/documents

• How We Follow the Siting Rules: the 980 CMR 16.00 checklist with the project's status on each item. carpenterhillpower.com/siting-rules

• The Community Engagement Plan filed with state reviewers in April 2026, and the project location map they asked for.

• The Citizen Advisory Committee charter, published with the September 10 meeting materials.

C. Glossary

Battery energy storage system, or BESS

Large batteries that charge from the grid when power is plentiful and send it back when the grid needs it.

Energy Facilities Siting Board, or EFSB

The state board that decides whether the project gets its permit under the 2024 Climate Act's consolidated permit process.

Office of Environmental Justice and Equity, or OEJE

The state office whose Standards and Guidelines set the template this plan follows.

Community Benefits Plan

This document: the benefits the project proposes for Charlton, and the terms that make them checkable. The state requires the project to pursue one.

Community Benefit Agreement, or host community agreement

A signed contract between the town and the project that turns plan items into enforceable terms. Whether to sign one is a decision for the town and the project together.

Payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT

An agreement under Massachusetts law that sets fixed annual payments to the town instead of a yearly assessment.

Commercial operation

The date the facility starts operating for the grid. Several commitments count from it.

Energization

The date the facility is first connected and carrying power, before commercial operation. The fire readiness card keys off it.

Mitigation

Work that offsets the project's own impacts, such as replanting or stormwater controls. It becomes a permit condition whether or not anyone negotiates for it, and it is not a benefit.

SMARTIE

The state's standard for a commitment: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable.

Pre-filing period

The engagement period under 980 CMR 16.00 that runs before the project applies to the siting board. This plan is written during it.

Decommissioning bond

Money the owner sets aside before construction so the site gets cleared and restored at the end of the facility's life, whoever owns it by then.

Escrow

Money held by a third party and released only when an agreed condition is met. Several cards propose it as the remedy if a payment slips.

Abutter

A property owner whose land touches or sits close to the project parcel.

Citizen Advisory Committee

The open, voluntary committee of Charlton residents that shapes this plan. Its charter is published with its roster.

The floor

The rate, years, and terms that can go up and cannot go down once the town and the project sign an agreement. Until then, the structure of this plan.

D. How to read the brackets

Text in square brackets is a decision that is not made yet. Some belong to the committee, some to the town, and some to the project. The reading version of this plan highlights every one of them, so anyone can count what is still open. When a bracket closes, the change and the reason are logged, the same way every design change has been.

Questions about this draft

Jonathan Santiago, Development Associate, ESA Solar. jsantiago@esa-solar.com or 407-232-7440 ext. 251.

Translation, interpretation, or another accommodation for any meeting about this plan is available on request.

The live version of this plan, the slides, the Commitment Tracker, the Engagement Log, and every document it rests on are at carpenterhillpower.com/benefits/plan. When a version of this plan is replaced, the old one stays readable, with the date it changed and the reason.

Carpenter Hill Power, LLC · 131 Carpenter Hill Road, Charlton, Massachusetts · Public comment draft v0.2 · September 30, 2026