TOWN OF MANLIUS – Residents of the neighborhoods around the proposed Bowman Road solar facility will have to wait until August to hear whether the town’s zoning board of appeals will pull the building permit for the project.
In May, Barbara Henry of Avriel Drive filed an appeal to the building permit for the project. Attorney Dirk Oudemool, representing Henry, is arguing that the building permit should be vacated because the project should be subject to the code that existed when the contract was signed, not the amended code, which was passed by the town board earlier this year. He said he is not arguing against the merits of the project, but rather the process that resulted in the project’s approval.
The town entered into a lease agreement with Abundant Solar for a portion of the landfill property in the fall of 2020 and amended that contract in the spring of 2021. Earlier this year, the town board changed its solar code so that the town board – not the planning board – would be responsible for site plan review of any solar project on town-owned land.
“After the fact, we have a change in the rules,” Oudemool told the town ZBA in June. “You can’t take an existing relationship and now say the rules have changed.”
At its meeting on July 21, the ZBA heard from the town codes officer Tom Poitras who said he received the building permit application from Abundant Solar on April 1, 2022 and approved it on April 14, 2022. That would have taken place after the solar code was amended in March.
In tabling the decision until August 18, ZBA Chairman Tim Kelly said he wanted the board to review all of the documents related to the project before making a decision on the building permit.
“What I want to do is have a timeline,” said ZBA Chairman Tim Kelly. “I want to make sure we make an appropriate decision, with all the facts in front of us.”
While the ZBA makes its decision, Oudemool has also filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the town making similar arguments in state supreme court. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of four area residents, will proceed in September. While the lawsuit is pending, no construction will take place on the project.
