HomeMy WebLinkAboutAbundant - 12.5.19 - DAS Letter to Groton re solar array
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Daniel Spitzer, Esq.
Partner
Direct Dial: 716-848-1420
Direct Fax: 716-819-4650
dspitzer@hodgsonruss.com
December 5, 2019
Via E-mail
Honorable Supervisor and Members of the
Town Board of the Town of Groton
101 Conger Blvd.
P.O. Box 36
Groton, NY 13073
April L. Scheffler, RMC
101 Conger Blvd.
P.O. Box 36
Groton, NY 13073
Re: Abundant Solar Power Proposed Groton Solar Array
704 Cortland Road, Town of Groton
On behalf of Abundant Solar Power, I want to thank the Town for moving
forward the application for a solar array. We have received the comments of Tim Buhl, the
DOT, and the County Planning Board, and a response to each comment from LaBella Engineers
is attached. Also attached is an updated site plan, confirming this is a five megawatt AC solar
project. As a result of the clarification of the project size, the potential environmental impacts
have been significantly reduced. The ground disturbance has been reduced by approximately
27%, almost entirely in the forested and potential wetland areas. We look forward to addressing
these changes and the project with you.
In addition, it is essential the Town Board also move forward the request for
financial assistance from the Industrial Development Authority. Absent that assistance there will
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be no solar project. Members of the Board articulated excellent reasons for being concerned
about tax breaks, but those concerns focused on the shifting of the tax burden to residents to
support new development. But that is simply not the case here. This project will not impose any
burdens on the community – no new school children or electric use of the Village’s allocation of
cheap electricity. This project will increase the wealth of the community through PILOT and tax
payments, as well as the benefit to local area businesses and employees through construction
costs (particularly labor, and the expenditures by local employees). You are being asked to vote
on supporting a project that will reduce the overall tax burden in the Town, not shift costs to
others. Absent that support, as the project cannot pay full taxes, you will be missing an
opportunity to reduce that burden. Given there is no alternative opportunity – there are no tax-
producing opportunities available for the subject site – we respectfully suggest the best interests
of the community are advanced by supporting the PILOT arrangement.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I greatly appreciated our conversation
at the last meeting and look forward to continuing the dialogue.
Very truly yours,
Daniel A. Spitzer
DAS/dcb
Encls.
cc: Richard Lu, President & CEO
Rachel Clar, Director of Business Development, New York
Dan Brocht, Senior Project Manager
Fran Casullo, Town Attorney
Robin Carigan, Deputy Town Clerk
Rick Fritz, Code Official