By David Tyler
The Manlius Planning Board has formally scheduled the public hearing for the Hoag Lane subdivision for Feb. 22. It will take place over Zoom.
Planning board Chairman Joe Lupia said he had hoped to locate a meeting space large enough to safely host a meeting with a sizable crowd, but given required safety protocols due to the pandemic, it was determined that the safest approach would be to have the hearing remotely.
Earlier this month, the Manlius Planning Board accepted a draft environmental impact statement from the developer, Tom Douglas. The lengthy report was prepared after the planning board determined in August that the project would have a significant environmental impact, requiring the developer to respond to a series of questions about mitigating those impacts.
Board members noted that accepting the statement does not imply that they agreed with the developer’s mitigation plans, only that the statement had been fully prepared.
The Hoag Lane subdivision, also called the Woodland Hills subdivision, is a 21-home project proposed near Hoag and Shiraz lanes.
Hearing planned for solar farm
The planning board also scheduled a public hearing on a solar array proposed for 7390 Kirkville Road for Feb. 8.
Renewable Properties, a solar energy company based in San Francisco, has proposed construction of a 1.6-megawatt community solar installation on the site, which is located just east of East Syracuse Minoa High School on the south side of Kirkville Road. That amount of power could supply energy to about 327 homes.
There are two homes immediately to the north of the site, but the developer said that a natural buffer of trees will make it nearly invisible to neighboring properties.
In a brief discussion of the project on Jan. 25, Lupia asked for, and received confirmation that the solar array would be limited to the front of the property, away from the homes on Helfer Lane that abut the back of the property.
“The plan is not to develop any other portion of the property other than the frontage along [Kirkville] Road,” said Brian Madigan on Renewable Properties.
