The Allegany County, N.Y., Planning Board declined to adopt an attempt from a solitary landowner to place a one-year moratorium on the development of solar and battery power projects in the county that has already approved several renewable energy projects.
During its deliberations Jan. 15, the board sent the issue back to the Town of Amity, where the project would be located. New York state has passed a law placing the authority for approving and siting renewable energy projects in the Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES).
H. Kier Dirlam, Allegany County’s planning director, told Checks & Balances Project in an email that the matter is now back in the hands of the Amity supervisors: Allegany planning board members “made a motion determining the Town of Amity Local Law to Impose a Moratorium on Solar Energy System Facilities and Large Battery Energy Storage System has no significant county-wide or inter-community impacts. A letter was returned to the Town for their information indicating this. This action is now back in the Town of Amity for their decision.”
The Alfred Oaks 100 MW project in Alfred, N.Y., has already been approved by ORES. If built, it would provide enough electricity for 13,000 homes. The Delaware River solar project has also been approved by Amity and Allegany County and is awaiting final ORES approval.
Amity supervisors voted 4-0 on Nov. 11 to approve the Delaware River project.
The proposed moratorium came after Lisa Clark-Shay, who owns a landscape nursery adjacent to the planned solar project by SolAmerica Energy was quoted in the Hornell Sun that placing a solar project on land “surrounding a small business, along the river, and on productive farmland is devastating to me and future crop production.”
Amity Supervisor John Francisco referred the proposed moratorium to the planning board.
Jackie Phillips, who owns the land on which the solar farm will be built, told the planning board that “particular parcel is not considered prime farmland and only 22 tillable acres, making it hard to farm in general. The family is trying to do something more productive with the property.”
Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
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