Bedford mulls renewal of BESS moratorium

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Large-scale battery installations, critical in building renewable-energy systems but potentially hazardous as well, will likely have to wait until later this year before seeking sites in Bedford. 

Already under a six-month freeze imposed in August, any effort to install a new battery energy-storage system (BESS), faces the probability of a renewed moratorium starting next month. Supervisor Ellen Calves recommended the new pause and called last week for a public hearing on the issue at the Town Board’s Feb. 18 meeting.  

“We need more time,” the supervisor told the board’s Jan. 21 meeting before Bedford’s permitting panels—essentially the planning and zoning-appeals boards—can consider applications. The town needs to “create some framework” around BESS facilities, Calves said,  “and make sure that what we have, and what we might have in the future, is absolutely safe and done right.”

Safety was the key issue prompting last summer’s freeze. Town Attorney Eric Gordon wrote at the time that Bedford officials were “concerned about locating of BESS in proximity to residential properties and in other areas where fires in such facilities could result in substantial harm to residents and damage to properties.” 

Lithium-ion batteries, the current popular storage choice for these facilities, do pose a risk of fire and explosion. But they also provide the storage that makes green energy sources like solar and wind practical at any time, not just when the sun shines or breeze blows. 

Government officials everywhere have been scrambling to address battery farms’ promise and peril. Last year, those hazards prompted Carmel in Putnam County to outlaw BESS installations anywhere within the town. The utility East Point Energy had proposed building a battery farm near the border with Somers, provoking protest by residents from both towns.

In Albany, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has drafted a model law to aid municipalities in siting BESS facilities. In White Plains, as County Legislator Erika Pierce told last week’s Town Board meeting, county officials are looking at such things as training, emergency plans, notification to fire departments and working together on plans for these types of installations.

Bedford already has some BESS installations. 

“We don’t have any large ones,” Calves said. But a local auto dealer, for example, has “a medium-sized system that supports a car charger from a solar system . . . and in towns around us there are larger ones.”

Land Purchase 

The town will ask residents’ views next week on spending as much as $400,000 in grant money to help buy more than 13 acres of vacant Katonah land.

“We don’t think it’ll be that high,” Calves said of Bedford’s share of the project’s $1.6 million in anticipated costs. More likely, the town’s Open Space Acquisition Committee estimated, Bedford would pay closer to $320,000. A state grant, through the Water Quality Improvement Program, is expected to finance 80 percent of the project’s cost.

By acquiring the 13.36 acres—two lots at 39 and 43 Reyburn Road—the town looks to block development of the land and help keep stormwater runoff and pollutants out of nearby Muscoot Reservoir. The property would remain undeveloped with only a potential hiking trail in its future.

A public hearing will be held next Tuesday, Feb. 4, to discuss the town’s contribution.

Pectol Named

Isabella Pectol has been appointed coalition coordinator of Thrive, northern Westchester’s tri-town fight against substance abuse. 

She will work with volunteer members from Bedford, Lewisboro and Pound Ridge to further the alliance’s common goal of building safe, healthy and drug-free communities. A $125,000 federal grant will support the work of Thrive, formerly known as the Drug Abuse Prevention Council.

Committee Appointments 

Familiar faces and a couple of new ones will be filling seats on two town committees.

On the recommendation of Supervisor Ellen Calves, the Town Board returned two members and added another to the 10-person Town Housing Agency. Named to three-year terms were Rose Goldfine, Stephanie Bush and newcomer William F. O’Neill. 

Working with the Blue Mountain Housing Development Corp., the agency administers Bedford’s affordable-housing policies. 

Calves also recommended that Jeff Carpenter, Amy Greenstein, George Fernandez, Marilyn Pellini and Heather Langham be reappointed and Michael Blum added to the Tree Advisory Board, all for two-year-terms. The board offers guidance to town officials on preserving, planting and removing trees.