By Phil Blackwell
Two long-term issues facing the town of Clay, involving commercial solar energy projects and a much-debated apartment complex on Morgan Road, were finally resolved in different directions.
At its July 20 meeting, the Clay Town Board rejected, by a 6-0 vote, a proposal from MVAH Holding to build a pair of three-story, 24-unit apartment complexes on the property of Faith United Journey Methodist Church.
Opposition to the project sprung up from residents across the street, who cited environmental and traffic issues in their correspondence with the town during public hearings held in June.
While the board did approve a State Environmental Quality Review Act resolution which stated that the construction would have not have a significant environmental impact, it still had plenty of objections to the project itself.
Supervisor Damian Ulatowski said that the project did not fit the land well and hoped that developers would “re-conceive” its plans before trying again.
This came right before the board gave approval to a modified one-year moratorium on solar energy projects within the town.
Ulatowski said that any commercial entity which submitted solar energy plans before July 20 can still have them considered.
More important was that, after much discussion between landowners, businesses and town officials, it was determined that industrial applications would be exempt from this moratorium. Residential projects were already permitted.
Also, the town board adopted an amendment to an already established points program meant to improve pension plans for the town’s volunteer firefighters.
The town is served by five different fire departments — Clay, North Syracuse, Brewerton, Moyers Corners and Caughdenoy, each of them mostly staffed by volunteers.
During their service, volunteer firefighters usually pick up points for pension plans due to attending meetings and going to training sessions, both of which were curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, the town and fire departments worked out an arrangement where each firefighter, when they put in their hours, will receive five points per month to make up for those meetings and training sessions they missed.
