'It's a big deal': This massive, mall-sized greenhouse just got the green light to go forward.

After years of shock, some awe, opposition and finally collaboration, farmer Tim Schartner has the necessary approval from Exeter officials to resume building his gargantuan, 25-acre greenhouse .

The town Planning Board voted unanimously last week to accept Schartner’s plans for his $80 million venture into the future of agriculture, with the condition he meet the board's last few stipulations in the coming months.

Those stipulations include tweaking internal design to meet fire safety concerns for workers inside the enormous mall-size space, purchasing one of the three lots the project will sit on (now under agreement), and obtaining an air permit for the gas-fired electrical generators from the state Department of Environmental Management.

When will tomatoes start growing?

Schartner, who with relatives and other partners formed a company called Rhode Island Grows, LLC, hopes to have the greenhouse’s glass framework completed over the winter and start growing by next spring the first of eventually 42,000 pounds of tomatoes a day. But final completion allowing the greenhouse to operate year-round would take months longer.

“To have a unanimous vote of the board after all this, I can't explain the feeling,” Schartner said Wednesday. “I’m just joyful.”

The Planning Board’s vote “is a big deal,” said Town Planner William DePasquale. “It’s a big deal.”

What delayed the project?

For the last three years, DePasquale had worked with Schartner to help him address the concerns of residents and the stipulations of various town officials around traffic, water use, fire protection and blocking light emanating from the greenhouse at night.

“This was a long time in coming. A lot of work was put into it. The plan did change a lot. They [Rhode Island Grows] had to come to the table with changes,” said DePasquale.

“Hopefully with all the stipulations, we can have a project here that is as compatible as possible with the community and maybe stave off what the alternatives are and has been in rural communities, which is housing," he continued.

The Schartner project in many ways exemplifies the challenges and competing interests facing many rural communities, DePasquale said.

“You got a rural community that wants to stay rural, but you’ve got to give these farmers some ability to have some kind of versatility in income to stay rural, otherwise they will go to [selling land for] housing.”

Schartner said last month that the Planning Board’s conditional approval was necessary to reassure investors the project could move forward after years of being stymied by zoning and planning issues and local opposition.

Peter Posk, a business adviser for Schartner, said last month that a Nevada bank is expected to loan the project $41.5 million, backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank in turn will loan the project $21.75 million, Posk said, and the rest of the project is being financed through private investment and the anticipated pre-sale of tax credits.

Schartner said Wednesday that the USDA is anxious to close on the deal now that the Planning Board has given its conditional approval.

Michael Kelly, Schartner’s lawyer, said the closing, which will free up financing for the project to resume construction and settle the property transaction at the same time, should take place in about six weeks.

Schartner, whose family has farmed along Route 2 for generations, broke ground on what would be Rhode Island’s largest example of “controlled-environment agriculture” in June 2021.

Town officials said the project needed zoning and planning review first, even if it was just a greenhouse. Schartner argued that greenhouses were purely agricultural structures and, as such, were exempt from such review.

The town zoning official issued a cease-and-desist order in October 2021. A Superior Court judge upheld the order.

Now, said Schartner, “All the hair is off this thing.  It’s on the rails now, moving forward.”

Contact Tom Mooney at tmooney@providencejournal.com .

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'It's a big deal': This massive, mall-sized greenhouse just got the green light to go forward.