Town of Hartland advancing law to ban industrial solar projects
GASPORT — Hartland is finalizing plans to pass a law aiming to ban "industrial" solar energy generation and battery storage projects.
Town Supervisor Margaret Zaepfel said that they are aiming to enact significantly more stringent laws to replace regulations previously passed by the previous town board under former supervisor Ross Annable's administration last year.
She also contends that a majority of town residents are "overwhelmingly" opposed to hosting utility-grade solar energy projects, primarily over concerns of potential environmental impacts and long-term maintenance.
"Now there are some people who think it's a great idea and most of those people are ones that will financially benefit from them...and that's fine. It's just that I am listening to the majority as far as protecting our town from this industrial solar sprawl that seems to be happening," Zaepfel said.
According to town attorney Michael Dowd, a portion of the law pertaining to security payments between a developer and the town during the decommissioning process of a project were the only changes made following last month's public hearing.
"In the old law, it was recommended that the annual increase for the security go from 2% to 5% after closure and then I added language that if at some point there was a closure and the bond security wasn't enough to cover it and the town had to incur an additional expense, that amount would be levied against the property as a tax," Dowd explained.
The town's current siting law established minimum setbacks of 500 feet from any dwelling on a non-participating property; 100 feet from any dwelling on a participating property; and 100 feet from any public road.
It also capped the coverage area of any single array at 50 acres.
The newly proposed law would add additional setbacks of 500 feet from all non-participating property lines bordering any residential district; 750 feet from any public road; and 1,000 feet from any school or public park.
The coverage area of any single array would be capped at 10 acres.
Despite the town aiming to pass the more stringent law, EDF Renewables' Director of Development Kevin Campbell, who was in attendance at last week's town board meeting, contends that the project would provide financial benefits to the town and maintains they are still open to further discussing plans with town officials and residents.
"It's just a local political stance that they're taking," Campbell said following the meeting. "What's important for us is to hopefully be able to work with the town and be able to compromise on some of what the state is looking for, what we're looking for and what the town is looking for. But until we start meeting and having conversations about the project, we're not going to get anywhere."
The issue has been a topic of contention amongst town officials and residents over the past five years since EDF Renewables proposed a 350-megawatt Ridge View Solar Center, which would be spread out over 2,000 acres leased by willing landowners.
Zaepfel, along with town board members Elizabeth Neadow and Sean Walp, ousted incumbent board members in last year's election primarily by campaigning on their stark opposition to industrial solar projects.
The town board previously enacted a six-month moratorium on the development of utility-scale solar energy generation and battery storage facilities in January and subsequently extended it in July.
Last week, they also approved a motion to be the lead agency for New York State Environmental Quality Review Act review and issue a declaration the new laws would not have any adverse environmental impacts.
The local law will then go in front of the Niagara County Planning Board on Oct. 21, before the board anticipates voting on it at its Nov. 14 business meeting.
