Pound Ridge approves BESS moratorium

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. - Pound Ridge is taking an official pause on the review and approval of applications and permits for large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).

While there are currently no applications pending, the town thought it prudent to get out ahead of the situation before that happens.

The six-month moratorium, passed unanimously by the Town Board after a public hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 23, is not intended to permanently prohibit such facilities, but to give the town time to make “appropriate revisions and amendments” to the local zoning code -- such as the definition of what BESS are, where they could or could not be located, and what safety measures should be in place – ie. training of local first responders – before they’re allowed.

Its purpose is to “protect the public health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the Town of Pound Ridge.”

Pro-BESS folks argue that those types of facilities strengthen grid stability and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The anti-BESS camp cites the environmental drawbacks of mining lithium and cobalt for batteries, and the potential for fires and explosions.

The temporary ban only applies to commercial, industrial, and utility uses. Exempt are small scale residential BESS such as home systems that use lithium-ion batteries connected to solar panels.

It takes effect immediately upon its filing with the Secretary of State.

During recent discussions, Supervisor Kevin Hansan referenced concerns raised in Carmel, where a 116-megawatt BESS had been proposed, and in Somers, which is located right over the Westchester/Putnam border from the 95-acre site on which the battery farm would sit.

(Carmel imposed a six-month moratorium and later passed a local law that banned large-scale BESS while allowing the installation of smaller battery systems on residential properties. Somers amended its local zoning law to better define what BESS are.)

According to Pound Ridge’s moratorium, while the town recognizes that BESS “are a key component to the viability and promotion of renewable energy sources,” it also is aware that the systems’ technology “is still in its infancy” and that there’s been “a significant amount of recent public concern about the potentially volatile nature of lithium-ion batteries.”

Its language defines BESS as “One or more devices, assembled together, capable of storing energy in order to supply electrical energy for commercial, industrial and/or utility applications.”

It contains a waiver that allow property owners who feel they’ve suffered any “unnecessary and extraordinary” hardships due to the law to apply for a variance.

Under the law, it’s NOT considered an “unnecessary hardship” just to be concerned about any changes in the town’s regulations or its code or about delays in the approvals of applications for variances, site plans, subdivisions, and special use (and other) permits.

Home rule is another topic that’s come up.

The moratorium notes that nothing in its language was “intended or shall be construed” to limit the town’s “home rule authority” under state law. The town also protected its right to set fees and charges attached to any BESS applications it might receive.

It’s similar to what the town did when a different issue arose: cannabis dispensaries and/or consumption sites.

The board approved a six-month halt in that permitting process so it could come up with local regulations. Those were approved in the midst of an extension of the original moratorium.

BESS Safety

In 2023, there were fires at BESS facilities in New York’s Jefferson, Orange, and Suffolk counties.

In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul formed the Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group and tasked it with ensuring BESS safety.

Its recommendations include enhanced BESS safety standards, updates to the state’s fire code, and ways of defining/implementing “best practices.”

If adopted, “the changes will codify enhanced safety standards and continue to position New York as a national leader in responsible and reliable battery energy storage development,” Pound Ridge’s moratorium read.

Because of this, local boards “need additional information and assurances” about the safety of BESS, including best practices for emergency responses, precautions to take relative to gas emissions and chemical impacts on groundwater, and the adequacy of location and other standards for siting.

It's especially concerned about the possible adverse effects of locating BESS near environmentally sensitive areas or residential properties.

Weighing In

Prior to the public hearing’s start, Councilman Dan Paschkes explained that the moratorium was the town’s “effort to get out ahead of an issue before it becomes problematic.”

It was not, he emphasized, a “permanent prohibition” but a means of giving officials time “to look at where our zoning ordinances need to be tweaked in order to take the potential siting of these types of systems into account.”

First to speak was resident Andy Karpowich, who said he wasn’t “necessarily opposed” to the moratorium but thought it should include language that excludes residential systems -- such the batteries used with solar arrays. These are already clearly defined in the local fire code, he noted.

(Smaller tier systems are NOT part of the moratorium.)

Melinda Avellino, Conservative Board chair, suggested additional legislative language regarding watersheds and other sensitive environmental areas.

Avellino’s proposed additions were read into the record at the request of Paschkes, who thought the town should be more specific when citing its reasons for a moratorium.

Namely, that Pound Ridge is located in two major watersheds: the Croton Watershed and the Long Island Sound Watershed. It’s also part of Stamford, Conn.’s, water supply.

The northern section of town is in the Croton Watershed, as is the Cross River Reservoir, part of New York City’s water supply. Other parts are located in the Silvermine, Mill, and Mianus rivers “subwatersheds,” which drain into Long Island Sound.

The regulations will address siting and safety issues such as thermal runaway, soft gassing and toxicity, fire prevention, byproduct contamination, and training for emergency responders.

Nicole Shaffer, Energy Action Committee co-chair, said her group supports a moratorium because it gives the town “time to take a measured, fact-based approach” to the formation of “appropriate regulations and building codes” for BESS.

However, she felt that the moratorium’s language had “an overly negative bias based more on worst case scenario fearmongering than on statistical facts.”

BESS can be part of the efforts to achieve “a greener more resilient grid” and “less reliance on fossil fuels,” Shaffer added.

She thought that, even with the hardship waiver, it would unfairly burden homeowners and small businesses wanting to install, for example, solar arrays.

“There's no reason our residents or small business owners should have to waste valuable time jumping through additional hoops and paying additional fees for a hardship waiver to put a system in place that some of their neighbors already have, especially when they could be losing incentives while they're being forced to wait,” she said, adding that: “It’s wrong, and it’s a hindrance against adoption of what we should be encouraging.”

Shaffer urged the town to “leave out all of the litany of worst-case scenarios” in the moratorium’s language and just “stick to the facts.”

Paschkes disagreed about changing the wording.

“If you don’t have your rationale, your justifications for the concern listed in your legislative findings, it can undermine the validity of the moratorium,” he argued.

Pro-moratorium resident John McCown said it behooved the town to act as quickly as possible to get regulations in place that would prevent “large, wholesale battery farms.”

“We do not want those. We do not need those,” he insisted.

Saying “knowledge can’t hurt you,” Police Chief Thomas Mulcahy agreed that training for first responders should be a requirement of the permitting process.

Board member Diane Briggs also was concerned about not imposing “additional burdens” on residents or small business owners.

Hansan directed the folks who will be putting together the new zoning regulations to define BESS as systems with commercial, industrial, and/or large-scale utility applications.

The current controversy wasn’t about the home battery systems that the town already has “a process in place to approve,” he added.

After closing the public hearing, the board voted unanimously to adopt the moratorium.