By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
In April 2019, Cypress Creek Renewables, LLC — a national solar energy company that develops, maintains and operates solar farms — presented a preliminary plan for its “Oxbow Hill Solar Project” to the Fenner Town Board.
According to the board’s April meeting minutes, the proposed 140-megawatt power plant would encompass 1,000 acres and involve a 25-year contract with five-year renewals possible for a 40-year timeframe.
The fenced-in project would run in a horseshoe shape around the town’s windmills — looping around Tower 19 and 20 toward Rouse Road and back around by the Fenner windmill building — and cover mostly hay and corn ground, as well as minimal wetland and about 50 acres of woods, which would be clear cut, according to the proposal.
One of the reasons Cypress Creek is interested in Fenner, according to Town Supervisor David Jones, is the fact that, because of its windmills, the town already has the necessary transmission lines in place.
“The power doesn’t necessarily stay here,” Jones said. “Right now, we produce enough power in New York State that we don’t use it all . . . so that power [would likely be] transported someplace else.”
Cypress Creek anticipates that the project would create temporary constructions jobs and around 12 full-time jobs.
Given its scope, the project would be regulated under Article 10 of the New York State Public Service Law.
Article 10 requires the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment to issue a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need authorizing the construction and operation of major electric generating facilities (25 megawatts or more).
“It’s quite an involved process,” Jones said. “You’re probably talking three to four years down the road for anything to [actually] happen.”
The Article 10 process would eliminate the need for a special use permit, but the project would still require a change in zoning.
“Right now we are only zoned for commercial wind power, not commercial solar power,” Jones said.
In August, the town board passed a local law opting out of New York State Real Property Tax Law Section 487 — a 15-year tax exemption for solar, wind, and farm waste energy systems.
Doing so enables the municipality to tax the project and generate additional property tax revenue instead of receiving an annual fee or PILOT (payment- in-lieu of taxes) from the solar developer.
“[With a PILOT program], the town would probably gain the least of everyone [involved],” Jones said. “Say [Cypress Creek] needs to pay $100 thousand. The way it’s split up, the schools get 67 percent, the county gets about 21 percent, and we get 12 percent. Out of the $100 thousand, we’d only get $12,000, and we would have all the impact as far as maintaining the roads and everything. The landowners are impacted too because they’re covering up some of their land.”
On Sept. 11, the board adopted Resolution 2019-14, “A Resolution Adopting A Local Law Establishing An Interim Moratorium On Ground Solar Energy Facilities Within The Town Of Fenner.”
The resolution says the purpose of the local law is “to enable the Town of Fenner to stay the construction, operation, and establishment of, and the submission and processing of applications for permits, zoning permits, special permits, zoning variances, building permits, operating permits, site plan approvals, subdivision approvals, certificates of occupancy, certificates of compliance, temporary certificates, and other Town-level approvals respecting, the activities prohibited by Section 3 of this Local Law, for a reasonable time, so as to allow the Town time to study the impacts, effects, and possible controls over such activities and to consider amendments to the Town’s zoning laws to address the same.”
The moratorium is for one year (Sept. 2019 to Sept. 2020).
“We do have the option of extending it, but we are hoping to get it all taken care of in a year,” Jones said.
According to Jones, a committee has been formed to develop a new Town of Fenner Comprehensive Plan, which will address commercial solar projects.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about what is [being proposed],” Jones said. “I don’t think people realize the scope of the project. It’s huge. The solar array at the landfill is 13 acres. So you’re talking over 70 times larger than that . . . I don’t think anybody is opposed to solar, but [there are people] opposed to a project this size. It’s basically going to change what our town looks like. It would use up basically 10 percent of the tillable land in our town . . . if that’s what the people want, that’s fine, but right now, the majority of the people I’ve talked to do not want a project that large.”
According to Jones, Cypress Creek has not been in contact with the town since September.
