This is a great example of a solar developer THREATENING a local zoning board, in order for the developer to get whatever they want.
Solar developers Eden Renewables asked the Gloversville Zoning Board of Appeals to grant a “Public Utility Variance” to allow the company to build a proposed $10 million 32-acre 7.5-megawatt solar farm on the site of the former Pine Brook Golf Club.
The location of the property is currently zoned for residential use.
Acting ZBA chairman led the board in tabling the matter, claiming members had only received Eden Renewables’ application at the end of last week and needed more time to consider the company’s arguments for why the project should be granted a Public Utility Variance.
Eden Renewables application is different from the typical zoning use variances considered by the Gloversville ZBA. Normally to get a zoning use variance, an applicant must prove an “unnecessary hardship” to the property owner by showing the applicant can’t achieve a reasonable rate of return from owning the property under the current zoning restrictions. Applicants have to show the hardship relating to the property is unique, granting the use variance wouldn’t change the essential character of the neighborhood and the alleged hardship was not self-created.
Maruca said under New York state law electricity generating facilities are given “special dispensations” for where they can be built because they are already limited to choosing properties near electrical grid connections sufficient to accommodate the power generation.
“If there isn’t electrical infrastructure to interconnect with, you can’t do it, and there are only so many places around the state that you can actually make an interconnection — I’ve seen 200 hundred and 300 hundred acre parcels and there’s no ability to interconnect,” Maruca said.
The local property is near what solar developers call “good grid,” power line interconnections that allow for distribution of generated electricity, low voltage sub-transmission of electricity or high voltage electrical transmission.
“There aren’t a lot of places to do these projects, to do 6-gigawatts, you need about 30,000 to 35,000 acres of usable land, so that’s a lot of 7.5-megawatt projects, no one developer could do all of that,” he said. “The state is mandating you’ve got to put these projects together. You’ve got to find more than 800 community solar projects. It’s not a goal, it’s a law.”
During the three common council public hearings on the proposal there were a few speakers who voiced opposition to the idea of the solar farm, claiming they think it would be loud and bad for the residential neighborhood. John Synakowski, who lives near the project, objected to Eden Renewables’ proposal to use sheep to groom the grass around the solar farm, part of several nature-based features of the project along with having beehives, wildflowers, and a community garden.
Maruca said sheep aren’t allowed in the city anyway, so Eden Renewables has dropped that part of its concept.
ZBA member Ronald Sutler on Friday said he received his copy of Eden Renewables application in the mail postmarked May 28 from Gloversville city hall. He said the standard operating procedure for Zoning Board of Appeals applications has been for the applicant to mail the information to city hall where city officials then copy the application and send it out to ZBA members.
“I received it on May 29, and I assume the other members received it about the same time I did,” Sutler said. “I have not had time to review the information in the packet. There are many pages, without sitting down and counting them, I would think it’s at least 50 pages to this document. There were two cases under consideration for that evening and we got both of them in the same packet, and we received it a couple of days prior to a holiday weekend, so none of us had time to review the information.”
Maruca said he is hopeful the Gloversville ZBA will rule on Eden Renewables’ application by its July 7 meeting. He said if the use variance is not granted his company could scale up the size of the project to a 20 to 25-megawatt peak solar farm eligible to take advantage of a new New York state law passed in 2020 called the “Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act,” which would bypass local regulatory board approvals.
Read the Entire article at: Niagara county hopes new recycling law will discourage solar developers
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