Manlius solar moratorium likely

TOWN OF MANLIUS – Facing a slew of potential commercial solar projects, the Manlius Town Board will consider a moratorium on large-scale solar arrays.
On Monday night, two town councilors, John Deer and Katelyn Kriesel, appeared at the Manlius Planning Board meeting prior to two contentious public hearings on proposed community solar arrays to poll the planning board on its interest in a moratorium.
Each planning board member who spoke on the issue supported the idea.
Last week, the town board directed attorney Tim Frateschi to draft a local law that would temporarily halt the siting of large-scale solar arrays in the town.
“The moratorium has to be related to a specific issue or problem that you’re trying to address,” Frateschi said. “The fact that we’re getting as many solar farm applications as we are I think is sufficient to justify that kind of event.”
On Monday night, Kriesel said that a moratorium of six months would give the town an opportunity to gather information from experts, review how neighboring communities are regulating solar, learn more about the PILOT agreements related to solar projects, and make headway on the comprehensive land use plan that is currently under development.
“It looks like the best option for us is going to be to consider a moratorium,” Deer told planners. “By doing that, we’re going to be able to give [the planning board] more tools.”
“Unless there is a moratorium, we have no alternative but to move forward on all applications currently before us,” planning board Chairman Joe Lupia said. “It would hopefully give us more guidance as to what the town’s vision of the future is relative to solar projects.”
“We need some outside expertise to help us determine what makes sense,” said planning board member Rich Rosetti. “I do not want to wake up eight years from now and look around Manlius and say ‘What the heck did we do?”
If the board moves forward with a moratorium, a public hearing must be scheduled before putting the moratorium in place. The earliest date that public hearing could take place is July 28.
The board will also need to consider whether the moratorium would apply to all the solar projects that have been or could be proposed, or just the two projects that have not yet been approved and any future applications. Seven solar projects have been proposed in Manlius since 2017, including six since the beginning of 2020. Of those seven projects, five have had special use permits and site plans approved by the Manlius Planning Board. To date, none of the projects have broken ground. Even though approvals are in place for five of those projects, the board could apply the moratorium to any or all of those projects as well.
The two projects that haven’t yet been approved are currently being reviewed by the Manlius Planning Board Those two projects – one on Salt Springs Road and one on Duguid Road – have come under heavy scrutiny by neighbors concerned about the impact on property values and the pastoral settings where these projects have been proposed.
In the past week, community groups have begun placing signs around the eastern part of Manlius in opposition to those projects.
Earlier this month, faced with a similar outcry from residents, the town of Cazenovia put a one-year moratorium in place to enable the town to review and address the various issues associated with commercial freestanding solar arrays.
The resolution passed by the town of Cazenovia stated that the town’s existing commercial solar regulatory framework is “insufficient to balance the needs for protection of certain resources in the town with the needs of those who wish to undertake such uses.”
Projects face strong opposition
Following the discussion on the moratoriums, the planning board went forward with public hearings on the proposed 11.5-megawatt Duguid Road and the 5-megawatt Salt Springs Road solar arrays. Both projects – particularly the Salt Springs Road project – faced strong opposition from the standing-room-only crowd at Manlius Town Hall.
Among the concerns related to the Salt Spring Road project were harmful chemical runoff from the solar panels, the height of the array on the hillside overlooking the road, potential damage to the aquifer caused by drilling the panels into the ground, the inability to screen the site because of the rocky terrain, and potential decreases in the neighbors’ property values.
“13,500 bright, shiny panels do not belong on this beautiful hillside,” said Salt Springs Road resident Joe Messineo. “The people that live across the street … they’re going to look out on that hillside forever. You’ve just destroyed their viewshed and also their property values.”
The planning board held both public hearings open as it waits for a determination on the moratorium from the town board.