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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-15-2022 Special meeting 2022TOWN OF GROTON –MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022 AT 7:00 PM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Thomas Mayo Crystal Young, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Barry Siebe Richard Gamel, Councilperson Randy Jackson, Town Justice Barbara Siebe Robin Cargian, Town Clerk Paul Lang, Town Justice Monica Carey, Planning Board Mack Rankin, Dept. Highway Ellard Keister, Highway Super. W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Francis Casullo, Attorney Julie Graham, Bookkeeper The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:03pm and the reading of the Public Hearing Notification and Special Meeting of the Groton Town Board which was posted in the Cortland Standard, on the Clerk’s signboard as well as being placed on the Town of Groton website. No written comments were received by mail or email. Supervisor, Donald Scheffler – I will read the law as was presented to the board that we are discussing tonight. It should be noted that his action is not subject to a SEQR review. MOTION to open the Public Hearing for proposed Law #2 for the Year 2022 was made by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Gamel. Ayes - Young, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed LOCAL LAW NO. 2 OF 2022 TO PLACE A MORATORIUM ON COMMERCIAL SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS IN THE TOWN OF GROTON Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Groton as follows: Section 1. Title This local law shall be referred to as the "Local Law Imposing a Six (6) Month Moratorium on Commercial Solar Energy Systems in the Town of Groton." Section 2. Authority and Intent. Pursuant to the statutory powers vested in the Town Board of the Town of Groton (the "Town Board") by the New York State Constitution and New York Municipal Home Rule Law §10, to regulate and control land use and to protect the health, safety and welfare of its residents, the Town Board hereby declares a six (6) month moratorium on the issuance of approvals and permits for Commercial Solar Energy Systems (as defined below) within the Town of Groton. Town Board Minutes Page 2 November 15, 2022 Section 3. Legislative findings The Town Board desires to review on a comprehensive, Town-wide basis the laws and zoning regulations currently in place regulating land uses relating to Commercial Solar Energy Systems, including solar panels or solar installations and to amend, if necessary, such laws and zoning regulations. The Town Board is concerned that approval of Commercial Solar Energy Systems under the Town's existing laws may not support the best uses for the agricultural lands within the Town of Groton and that such uses could be located in unsuitable areas within the Town and/or on particular lots without adequate dimensional regulations in place. The purpose of this local law is to temporarily prohibit the processing and approval of any application for a permit to construct and/or install Commercial Solar Energy Systems in the Town of Groton until the Town Board can analyze and enact legislation to carefully integrate Commercial Solar Energy Systems within the Town's existing pattern of predominately agricultural and residential land use. By enacting this moratorium, the Town Board can evaluate standards for Commercial Solar Energy Systems in an orderly manner, that will allow for continued economic development, while remaining protective of property rights and existing community character. Section 4. Definitions "Commercial Solar Energy Systems" shall be broadly construed to mean any installation of solar panels, equipment and/or buildings or structures constructed with an intention of generating power from the sun and converting such power into electricity for resale to or by a third party. Not included within the scope of this moratorium are (1) large scale solar energy projects that are subject to the siting and permitting authority of the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting under the New York Executive Law§ 94-c process and (2) any solar panel collection system or array constructed by individual landowners, homeowners or farmers for their own personal use, or the use of a business owned by them. Section 5. Moratorium Imposed For a period of six (6) months after the effective date hereof, neither the Town Board, the Planning Board of the Town of Groton, the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Groton, nor the Code Enforcement Officer shall grant any approval or issue any permit that would result in the establishment, placement, construction, installation, enlargement or erection of Commercial Solar Energy Systems in the Town of Groton, and no such application, pending or otherwise, shall be either deemed complete or processed for a hearing before any agency or board. This moratorium shall apply to all zoning districts and all real property within the Town of Groton. Section 6. Variance Any property owner affected by this moratorium may apply to the Zoning Board of Appeals and make use of the existing variance procedures under the zoning laws and regulations of the Town of Groton to seek relief from the restrictions of this local law. Section 7. Supersession Town Board Minutes Page 3 November 15, 2022 All local laws, ordinances, resolutions, and other enactments of the Town of Groton in conflict with the provision of this local law are hereby superseded to the extent necessary to give the terms of this local law full force and effect. To the extent that any law, ordinance, rule, or regulation, or parts thereof, are in conflict with the provisions of this local law, including all provisions of Article 16 of the New York State Town Law concerning special use permit, site plan, building permit, and certificate of occupancy procedures and requirements, this local law shall control and supersede such law, ordinance, rule or regulation. Section 8. Term The moratorium imposed by this local law shall take effect immediately when it is filed in the Office of the New York State Secretary of State in accordance with Section 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law and shall last until the first to occur of: (1) the repeal of this local law; (2) the enactment of a local law by the Town Board regulating Commercial Solar Energy Systems; or (3) the date six (6) months from the effective date. The Town Board may, by resolution, extend the duration of the moratorium for a period of an additional six (6) months if necessary. Section 9. Penalties for Offenses Any person who shall violate any provision of this local law, shall be guilty of: 1. A violation and subject to a fine of not exceeding $1,000 per offense; and 2. Injunctive relief in favor of the Town to cease any and all such actions which conflict with this local law and, if necessary, to remove any construction or improvements which may have been built in violation of this local law. Each week's violation shall constitute a separate offense. It shall be the duty of the Code Enforcement Officer to enforce the provisions of this local law. Section 10. Severability If any portion, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this local law is for any reason held invalid or unconstitutional by any court, such portion, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase shall be deemed a separate, distinct, and independent provision, and such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion of this local law. Section 11. Effective Date This local law shall take effect immediately upon its filing with the Office of the New York State Secretary of State in accordance with the New York Municipal Home Rule Law and shall remain in force and effect for a period of six (6) months from the date of such filing. PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #2 FOR THE YEAR 2022 A LOCAL LAW IMPOSING A SIX (6) MONTH MORATORIUM ON COMMERCIAL SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS. Town Board Minutes Page 4 November 15, 2022 Public Comment: Tom Mayo – I am here with a question. What does it mean to say “ the health and safety” is the intent of this moratorium? I can see the land use piece, totally makes sense. Councilperson Gamel- The health and safety would be water run-off that is not controlled from the solar panels. Supervisor Scheffler – When you have cover like the roof of a house, there is a lot of run off from the roof that does not soak into the ground under the house. So, if you have a lot of little roofs in a small area, you can have a large run off especially in a heavy rain. There are also concerns for hazardous materials in solar panels that we have heard of. Tom Mayo – Where do those concerns come from exactly? Supervisor Scheffler – We have heard this, something about the coatings on them. We have heard it and would like to find out. Maybe it’s not true. Let’s find out. Tom Mayo – I worked with Ulysses in 2014 on their moratorium, which I thought was a great idea. You do want control over it to prevent people from doing things that are careless, but certainly a SWIP is always required. I think if you are going to look at this, you are suggesting you are going to do an environmental impact study. Certainly, NYSERDA has the information you could possibly need on this. I am in favor of this, for an evaluation of what limitations you want to put but, to suggest that there is anything toxic about solar panels is the essence of fake news. The science is there, it’s all there. They have been deployed for decades now. Have you ever heard of a solar spill? It’s ridiculous. If the essence is the land-use, I am totally for it. It should be something the town looks at as far as what are the limitations, how much green space, how much AG land is being used. I will tell you, Delaware isn’t here tonight. I have been out of large scale solar since 2017, they aren’t here because they know they can end run you. They can go to the IDA. It doesn’t quite matter what the town ultimately has to say because market pressure will be on the back end. What you will end up doing is losing your power. If you reach out to other municipalities and try to push back against solar, if that’s the purpose, you never win. The only thing the Groton has that’s going on that is municipal, is the Village, is the municipal solar. As far as production, fossil fuels are going offline. It is a statement. So, what you are doing, if you extend beyond the 6 months and bottle neck this, you are taking anyone who could use their land and telling them, no they can’t. I remember being here with this board listening to people talk about, they weren’t interested in banning fracking. Fracking is a known problem. That’s why they banned it. I guess, my only concern is the nonsense about anything being toxic with these solar panels. The foundations are made out of steel, galvanized steel. They run up and down every road to make a guard rail, it’s the same exact stuff. Solar panels are made out of silicone, which is glass. Silver, there is some copper. I am really concerned about this conversation about the health concerns; it is a waste of your time. All you have to do is go to any reliable institution. Check it out. It doesn’t exist. I am for it in respect to land use and making sure that the town doesn’t let things get wily because these investors, essentially that’s what this is, large scale solar is big investors that come in. They’ll do what they tried to do with leasing under gas and people can get kinda screwed on that. It is limited to three phase lines anyways so you’re only going to get a target number of properties who are really being slowed down. The money they would get from a solar lease is better than they would get from an AG lease. So you are telling them no, on income. One of the planning board members, brought this to my attention, when you build these large- scale farms, they use sheep. They don’t mow these things so that’s not just a waste. So that is bringing Town Board Minutes Page 5 November 15, 2022 some of that AG back and the use of that land in that way. So there are other farmers who would also benefit. So all you are doing is putting that profit behind, if you delay it beyond the reasonable 6 months. So don’t spend much time on the toxic part of it. Do spend some time. But if you are looking for something, you can find anything on google, but reputable institutions will tell you otherwise. Barry Siebe – Not to put more of a point on it, I don’t think this board has focused on the health and safety as much as some of the land use issues. As discussed previously, concern about the loss of trees and the runoff that might be created by these projects. I am very much in favor of where you are heading with this. My question to the board is what are the next steps? How do we proceed with this? What is your plan for continuing this process? Who are we looking to put these considerations together and guidelines to develop those? Are we looking to bring in outside assistance? What is the process so we can in fact take care of this in a timely fashion, by putting together some comprehensive and sensible guidelines for the approvals of these kinds of projects? Supervisor Scheffler- The plan is to form a committee to make recommendations. If the committee recommends we get outside help on this, then that is what the board will do. I want to appoint a citizens committee at the next board meeting to advise the board on how we should go with this. To make recommendations to water quality or changes to our regulations to look into hazardous things that may or may not exist. That is the direction that we would like to go with this. Barry Siebe – So you are looking at a committee that would have a specific timeline to provide recommendations? Supervisor Scheffler – Yes, so we can get this done. Monica Carey – I am in favor of the moratorium. I think we need to look at the runoff situation and out in the country we all have private wells. I think we need to look at the fire department and how they would handle a fire at these solar places. Councilperson Gamel- Yes, we have discussed that numerous times, it is one of our major concerns. Monica Carey – Run off is a major concern because you have a lot of private wells in the area. We don’t have any other option for water as there is no public water out in the country. With no one else wishing to speak, a MOTION to close the Public Hearing for proposed Law #2 for the Year 2022 was made by Councilperson Young seconded by, Councilperson Gamel. Ayes -Young, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed RESOLUTION #22-085 – ENACT LOCAL LAW #2 OF 2022 IMPOSING A SIX (6) MONTH MORATORIUM ON COMMERCIAL SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS A MOTION to enact Local Law#2 of 2022 to impose a six (6) month moratorium on commercial solar energy systems in the Town of Groton as submitted by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Gamel. Ayes –Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Town Board Minutes Page 6 November 15, 2022 Privilege of the Floor: Tom Mayo – Can I just ask, on this citizen council, can you define that a little bit better? Supervisor Scheffler- We haven’t finalized that yet. We will figure it out and talk about it at the next board meeting. Councilperson Young – Basically it will be a committee that we would like the citizens of the town to be included in that decision and research process to bring their findings on the impact it would have. Tom Mayo- One of the things I would suggest is reaching out to other towns that have been doing this for years now, which might not be ready for the next meeting. Councilperson Young- Yes, we are on meetings with them and are in collaboration with other towns regularly and many of them have said, they wished they had put a moratorium in place to gather other information before they allowed….. Tom Mayo- Did they say why? Councilperson Young- They did but I don’t have my notes and I don’t want to state why as I don’t want to get it wrong. Tom Mayo – But if it were toxic chemicals in the ground…. Councilperson Gamel- I don’t think we are concerned with toxic chemicals right now. We are concerned about reclamation 25 years down the road. That is certainly a concern of mine. Who’s going to pay for it, what happens when this is done. I have property that a solar company has approached me and you are correct, it was more money. I would make from that than the farmer in, a decade. You have done your homework. It is a fact, if a solar farm goes up next to your property, your property values go down. That is a fact. I have to considered that; we have to consider that as well. We want to make sure if something like this happens, if solar farms do go up, which I have gone on record stating they are the most hideous thing to look at. It is an oxymoron to me, to take up farmland or cut down trees to make green energy, swamp land yes, that is one thing. I have told a solar company that was here, there is a Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes in every town in the county, put them on those roofs. Let’s use that up. We need some time. This is something we do have control over versus the 120MW going in on the Groton -Lansing Town line. Governor Cuomo, before he left office, took every right we had away. We can’t tell them not to cut a tree, we can’t tell them where to put the water, but small scale we have a little more. We have to take some time to make the best decisions for our neighbors, the town, the village and everybody involved. Tom Mayo – Why was this not the same attitude about fracking? I’m curious, what has changed about land use? Councilperson Gamel- OK, I’ll say this to have it on record. My son and I were traveling to look for a vehicle for him, headed to the Rochester area, through Scipio. The footprint for the gas wells that are out there take up less than one quarter of this room. There is a little fence and a couple of pipes coming out of the ground and everything around it is farmland. Town Board Minutes Page 7 November 15, 2022 Tom Mayo- That is a gas well, a vertical gas well. That is not a horizontal frack well. Councilperson Gamel -Fracking goes down and over. Same thing. We did go to Pennsylvania and see that and it is still a small scale compared to solar farms. Tom Mayo – I worked on that stuff years ago too and I think you did not see a frack field. They are not just one well in a dispersed area. They are multiples within miles and sometimes even within distances to schools but there was no concern about the toxic problem of that. I just don’t understand why that and the land use piece, and the danger of run off, the well issues that are known. The well issues in Pennsylvania are known, people’s wells blow up there. So, no concern there, but a concern here? Supervisor Scheffler – This is a special meeting tonight and the purpose is about solar so we need to stick to that discussion. Councilperson Gamel – It is in the past. Fracking is gone, it is out of New York State, so it’s over. Tom Mayo – I appreciate your time and look forward to seeing what happens as you go forward. One of the things you may talk about when you get down the road, is about glare. Glare is something that I don’t know if you have heard much about, but I learned about it as part of my very first project. The neighbors right across the street from a three-quarter megawatt project, it was actually the first solar farm in New York State, had glare hitting their house and it was a huge mistake. So, mistakes can be made, so looking at this makes a lot of sense. Announcements: Planning Board, November 17, 2022 @ 7:30pm Zoning Board of Appeals, November 16, 2022 @ 7:00pm There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Young, at 7:27 pm. Unanimous. Robin Cargian, RMC Town Clerk/Tax Collector