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The Town of Lansing may impose a three month moratorium to give the Planning Board time to consider a new law governing commercial solar farms.  Board members expressed frustration Monday with their role in overseeing solar projects in the township.  Planning Board Chairman Tom Ellis said that developers, in a rush to take advantage of NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) funding, are asking the Board to provide letters and assurances before actual projects are presented, something, he added, the Board does not do.  He said that puts pressure on the Town to craft a law governing commercial solar arrays.

"It seems like the pressure's on," Ellis said.  "There is a stampede for this money before it dries up from NYSERDA.  It prompted me to think we really don't have a great solar section (of law) here."

Ellis said that Town Attorney Guy Krogh is recommending a law to protect the Town and purchasers of solar power from uncertain savings and potential liabilities.  Krogh said many local municipalities are imposing moratoria to allow time to craft laws that protect them.

"What is scary is that some municipalities are proceeding anyway without knowing details like location, price, maintenance obligations, etc.," Krogh wrote Ellis in an email message.   "Much like we have a cell tower law because they are a unique land use, so too, we should develop wind and solar farming laws."

Planning Board member Larry Sharpsteen said there has been consideration of solar farms on the Comprehensive Plan and Agriculture committees, because of a number of items of concern.  He accused promoters of selling 'snake oil', promising big savings that may or may not materialize, or locking clients into technology that is generations old, as he said the Cornell solar farm did.  He expressed special concern about returning solar farmland back to actual farmland when solar leases expire.

"It's awfully difficult to convert a field back to farming when you've got 60 tons of concrete six inches under the surface," he said.  "Or a holding company goes out of business, then the Town or the farmer or whoever takes over the land when the farmer can't pay the taxes because he is still being taxed as a solar farm -- has to carry the can for decommissioning.  Those are all things we have got to look into."

Planning Board member Al Fiorille noted there should be a difference between solar panels for use on-site and solar farms that tie into the national grid, enabling them to charge their clients less than they would pay for conventionally produced electricity.

"If it's on a commercial building for use on-site it's one thing.  If it's located on one parcel but it's being credited to a different parcel that's a completely different commercial use."


Cornell's solar farm on Snyder Road, east of the Tompkins Ithaca Regional Airport was a sore point for many of the board members, who said that while the end result was acceptable, the process left them feeling 'bowled over' by Cornell and Distributed Sun LLC, which developed the solar farm.  Part of that discomfort came from the fact that Planning Board members felt that Town requirements are not well defined, and part because the solar farm does not pay property tax, because universities are tax exempt, despite the fact that the solar far is technically owned and run by Distributed Sun.

Code/Fire Enforcement Officer & Building Inspector Lynn Day noted that an impending project that is estimated to save the Lansing schools $478,119 over 25 years will likely also be exempt from a site plan review.  He noted that the same loophole that exempts the developer from property taxes may apply to the school district project.  If the contract is signed, RER Energy Group will lease land from Walnut Ridge Dairy to house a 1.5MW array.

That project has seen some bumps as rising costs and the passage of time have significantly changed what was to have been $1,055,067 of savings over 20 years.  But School Business Administrator Mary June King recently reported in a Board Of Education meeting that a final contract was nearly ready to be signed if the school board approved it.  A moratorium could stall the project if the developer hasn't submitted an application to the Town before a moratorium is imposed.

Day said that current Lansing law does allow the Planning Board to handle the board members' issues in site plan reviews in zones where commercial solar is an allowable use.  He sited Local Law #1 of 2015 that governs land use, noting that it specifies that commercial solar panels and similar energy sources are permitted in the Rural Agriculture (RA), Commercial - Mix Use (B1),  Commercial - General Business (B2), and Industrial Research (IR) zones.

"There's not a thing in here that you can't handle through site plan, including decommissioning," he said.  "Any commercial use requires site plan.  It doesn't matter if it is (solar panels on the roof of a business for use in that building) or if it's a solar farm."

Town Board member Doug Dake said that a new law for commercial solar farms may not be needed, since the Land use law already gives the Planning board the authority to place conditions on solar projects.  But Sharpsteen said that law is not specific enough.  He added that with or without a moratorium the Planning Board should work on a new law.

"We can't do a site plan that we don't have regulations for," he said.  "We can do a site plan review if we've got a law to prove that we're being consistant.  If we want to do it without a moratorium, that's fine.  All I'm saying is be warned, because we could get into something that we may not be happy with as a town."

Planning Board member Rick Prybyl said board members' comments suggest a moratorium is a good idea to give them the time they need to address their concerns.

"Some reasonable set of standards needs to be put in place," he said.  "What are the reasonable standards that the Town needs to say OK to a solar farm?  It seems that this board is not comfortable with the lay of the land for solar in a commercial setting in this town.  That's why we need a moratorium."

"There are so many impacts that it wouldn't hurt for the Town to put on the brakes until they can (study) what other towns are doing," said Planning Board Vice Chairman Lin Davidson.  "If we go with what is planned by 2013 there will be 170,000 acres of solar panels in New York State -- it's the size of Tioga County.  I think we have to look at the impacts to the Town.  They have the transmission lines that they have to hook into."

Dake noted that there is plenty of time, including a scheduled Planning Board meeting before the July Town Board meeting.  He suggested Planning Board members take the time to study the existing law and look at examples of commercial solar use laws from neighboring communities.

"I would take a step back and say, 'What's my real concern here?'," said Lansing Supervisor Ed LaVigne.  "If you do go through site plan you have tremendous flexibility in how you want to do this.  I think when you read this information you might be more comfortable than you think you are.  You might have more control of this than you think."

Board members agreed to study the local law, consult with Krogh, and look at other materials before their next meeting on July 11.  At that meeting they expect to decide on whether to recommend to the Town Board a three month moratorium to allow time to craft a law, to recommend crafting a law without a moratorium, or that the current land use law is sufficient for regulating new solar farm projects.  The next town Board meeting is scheduled for July 20th.

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