Whether a local coal company will be allowed to build a solar energy facility along Route 209 between Tamaqua and Tuscarora will have to wait three weeks.

The Schuylkill Township Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday night voted to continue a hearing into granting a special exception to Reading Anthracite for the solar facility until Oct. 19 so the company can gather more information.

The decision came after a 75-minute hearing during which Reading Anthracite testified why a special exception should be granted for the proposed facility.

A number of questions were asked that Reading Anthracite officials could not answer about the facility, which would encompass 10 acres of a 1,525.1-acre site in a general industrial zoning district along the north side of Route 209, 500 feet from the road that Reading Anthracite owns. The land is now used only for private recreation, said James Moore, an engineer for Lehigh Engineering, who is overseeing the project for Reading Anthracite.

“This use would be less intensive than normal industrial development of the property,” Moore said. “It will add value to old coal land difficult to find another use for.”

Moore said some of the questions would be answered when the firm submits a land development plan, which would not be done until the zoning approval is granted. Details of the project would be finalized then, Moore said.

Attorney Donald Karpowich, the zoning board solicitor, asked what if Reading Anthracite decided to sell the facility, or decided later to have someone else build it, whether conditions the company agreed to would be honored by someone else?

Moore said the solar panels would be “less than 10 feet off the ground,” and that they would take up five of the ten acres of the facility.

Moore also could not answer questions whether the facility would create a radio frequency issue. The tower for 105.5 WMGH-FM radio is located on Tuscarora Mountain. Moore said a radio frequency study would be done.

“We heard about this, at the last minute,” said Chris Crumbliss, co-owner and chief engineer for the radio station. “We were more concerned about wind turbines.”

Ronald Crumbliss, the station’s other co-owner, reminded those at the hearing about U.S. Code 1362 of 1948, concerning the willful destruction of radio broadcasts with the Emergency Alert System.

“I don’t see a problem with us, since there are no windmills,” Crumbliss said.

Moore also said he didn’t think the facility would create a glare problem, since the facility would be surrounded by heavy vegetation. Karpowich said a glare study would answer the question.

Shawn Zeigler, an engineer for Reading Anthracite, said the solar panels would be positioned at a 20-25 degree angle facing south so the sun could hit them. Construction would not begin for about nine months, in order to finalize the project. Actual construction would take 3-4 months, he said.

The hearing will be continued at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Schuylkill Township Municipal Building.