The Manlius Town Board heard a presentation at its Sept. 23 meeting by a representative from SunEdison regarding two 12-acre, 2-megawatt solar array farms they would like to develop on privately owned land along Route 290 (Green Lakes Road). Craig Both, a representative from the international renewable energy company, said SunEdison has been looking into properties in the Syracuse area that would allow them to build solar panel array farms. After doing some preliminary testing, Both said SunEdison has been communicating with two landowners looking to go into 20-year leases on two parcels of land off of the western end of Green Lakes Road, including 12 acres of Hafner’s tree farm property and 12 acres across the street at the Campbell’s Farm property. Both said the company builds these configurations of seven- to nine-foot high solar panels in areas around the world to be able to provide reduced energy bills to customers through a net-metering credit system with National Grid. The leases on the Hafner’s and Campbell farm properties would be about 12 acres in total, but only about 10 acres would be covered by the solar panels, and all construction, maintenance and removal of the panels after 20 years would be handled through SunEdison, said Both. He said there would be an 8-foot chain link fencing around the array farms to keep the property secure and the company is willing to work with the town to get a fencing that is permissible within the town. “It would be difficult to move forward without the support and aid of the town board,” said Both. “We’re really interested in rejuvenating the area and bringing solar power.” According to Tony Delia, an attorney representing SunEdison, the company has not formally applied for any permits in the town, but wanted to get an idea from the town board if this was something that they would allow. Delia also said there were talks of putting a solar array on the town’s landfill, but that project has been put on the “backburner” due to changes in solar energy regulations. Tim Frateschi, town attorney, said the two properties are currently zoned RA (residential agricultural) and he believes the solar panel farms would be permissible on those properties without a zone change. Councilor David Marnell asked if there was any noise associated with the panels, and Both said there is a low humming that emits from them, but is not audible from a distance of 100 feet. Councilor Richard Rosetti questioned the impact the project could have on the land. Both said SunEdison works hard when installing the panels to ensure the original land is kept with grass growing, and after 20 years or when the panels were being removed, the land would be returned to its original state. The town board voted to urge the company to inform and educate neighboring property owners of the proposed solar array farms in order to educate them and answer any questions they may have so the board can get a better idea if a project like this is something the community would want before sending it through the planning board process. Because the proposed solar farms are in rural areas, there are only a handful of properties that need to be notified, said Frateschi. Both said he thought this was a great idea and would work with the town to locate these properties and inform neighbors in a meeting sometime soon. Also at the meeting:
—Town Supervisor Ed Theobald presented the preliminary budget to Town Clerk Alison Edsall. Theobald said a preliminary budget would be presented at an upcoming town board meeting and the board can adopt a tentative budget after discussions. —Marnell presented the annual 2015 audit for the town’s justice department. The audit was done through Bowers & Co. and the justice department was shown to have a clean audit through September 2015. The town board voted to accept this audit. —The town board voted to award Syracuse Haulers for the brush contract at $29 per resident for a year. They were the sole bidder after a bid package had been sent out to three companies.