Renewable energy: wait and see or act now

On March 3, the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) issued Chapter XVIII, Title 19 of New York Codes Rules and Regulations Part 900, a set of regulations governing the placement and appearance of major renewable energy facilities such as the multiple solar farms planned for the town of Lansing.

ORES was established within the Department of State by the 2020 Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act to provide a single forum for the environmental review and permitting of proposed major renewable energy facilitates, including solar farms with a “nameplate generating capacity of 25,000 kilowatts or more.”

The new regulations address important local issues such as mandatory setbacks and the visual impact of the installations, but they are less clear about whether the state or the town gets final say about how they are finally implemented.

For instance, setbacks — the distance between the installation and residences or other existing structures — are one of the few items clearly defined in the 135-page regulation.

Solar facility components, such as panel or electrical equipment, must be 100 feet from nonparticipating residential property lines, 50 feet from centerlines of public roads and nonparticipating nonresidential property lines, and 250 feet from nonparticipating occupied residences. The maximum height is 20 feet.

However, Paragraph 2.25 of the regulation calls on applicants to ORES to list local laws or regulations that apply to the construction of the facility and include a statement that the “location of the facility as proposed conforms to all such local substantive requirements, except any that the applicant requests that the Office elect not to apply.”

It continues that “the Office may elect to not apply, in whole or in part, any local law or ordinance which would otherwise be applicable if it makes a finding that, as applied to the proposed facility, it is unreasonably burdensome in view of the CLCPA targets and the environmental benefits of the proposed facility.”

ORES is tasked with accounting the cost among solar operators, consumers and local residents to define “unreasonably burdensome,” and it has yet to do so.

That uncertainty led Lansing Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne to recommend a “wait and see” approach.

First, he cautions that there is “nothing on the docket right now” with regard to multiple leases signed by Lansing landowners with solar facility owners and operators.

“We are moving forward now that we have the rules and regulations,” LaVigne said. “We will see how they are implemented, see how it plays out through site review. We can ask for more setback, but it can be deemed excessive by Albany. Who is driving the bus? It appears to not be Lansing.”

LaVigne hopes for a negotiated response to large solar zoning requests.

“What if we ask for 100 feet of setback but with three rows of trees staggered?” he said.

LaVigne noted that, in some cases, larger setbacks make a property unviable for a solar project.

“There’s no record to go on until we have the first couple of cases, especially if they are contested,” he said. “That will give us a sense of where the parameters are — not 300 feet but maybe 150 feet.”

In the meantime, Lansing resident and County Legislator Mike Sigler advocates a more active approach, saying that “the state said that they will follow town rules and zoning if they find it reasonable.”

“I think that the town should put in what it wants and let the state decide if it’s unreasonable,” Sigler said. “If the town thinks a 300-foot setback is where we should be, then they should pass it and let the state say it’s too big.”

Sigler noted that people used to residential solar, covered under the town’s solar plan, may not be aware of the size and impact of a utility-scale solar project.

“A 12-foot-high glass structure from the road to the horizon — is that what you want the biggest building in your town to look like?” he said.

Sigler began a petition drive last October to ask the town government to take steps to mitigate the impact of the new solar arrays.

“I am not saying a moratorium, but I can see reasonable setbacks, vegetation planted, staggered native pine trees, two rows,” he said. “The buffer is 100 feet, but they can put a fence or a road in that buffer. It’s not barren land.”

Sigler also highlighted an “intervener’s group” set up to oppose a 2,000-acre solar farm in Conquest, New York, in Cayuga County as a possible path forward for Lansing.

On March 2, ORES granted the Rural Preservation and Net Conservation Benefit Coalition $30,000 taken from a pool funded by project developers to help with solar project review efforts. The group has hired a law firm and experts in ecological impact and, more recently, an expert in visual impact.