York County planning staff have sent back Saco Ridge Solar's preliminary vegetative-screening plan near Biddeford, directing the applicant to identify planting areas along residential-facing boundaries and provide a schedule for installing and maintaining the buffer.

The request is the first administrative step since the county approved the 3,746-acre project with conditions requiring added vegetative screening, wider setbacks from homes and a binding site-restoration plan. County staff said the revised submission must show how the screening will work with the required setbacks before a construction plan can move ahead.

Bianca Beaumont, a neighboring landowner, said the returned plan showed why the conditions need close enforcement, particularly where open farmland leaves nearby homes exposed to views of the proposed solar arrays. The applicant can resubmit the screening materials while the remaining approval conditions are developed; the county has not reopened its approval of the project, which is projected to create 195 jobs.