After twice extending a moratorium on Battery Energy Storage Systems, Pound Ridge has finally made zoning code changes that will, it says, “protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community.”
The Town Board voted unanimously on July 21 to adopt a local law that will prohibit BESS with the exception of those that are dedicated to “providing energy primarily for the property on which it is located” and/or are located on town-owned property, such as the highway department garage.
It also added definitions to the code.
BESS are “devices capable of storing energy in order to supply electrical energy at a future time, not to include a stand-alone 12-volt car battery or electric motor vehicle.”
Batteries are defined as “a single cell or a group of cells connected electrically in series, in parallel, or a combination of both, which can charge, discharge, and store energy electrochemically, excluding batteries utilized in consumer products.”
Public utilities are “persons, firms or corporations supplying gas, electricity, water, power, transportation, cable, television or telephone service to the general public.”
Under the new law, BESS are not considered public utilities.
The town recognized that the state is promoting renewable and energy generation and storage and that BESSes are “critically essential to a successful transition to a clean energy future and grid resilience.” However, the resolution noted, such policies “do not warrant the establishment of BESS facilities in every municipality where local safety, environmental, and land use concerns are of the utmost importance.”
New York state has adopted updated codes through the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council, according to the resolution.
The law’s intent, it added, “is not to discourage the responsible use of BESS by individual property owners, but to ensure that BESS are sited and operated in a manner that protects public health, safety, and the town’s natural resources.”
Pointing to recent BESS fires in New York, including one in 2023 in the Orange County town of Warwick, Pound Ridge decided to reevaluate zoning and permitting requirements in order to prevent these facilities from being sited near schools, parks, and other sensitive places.
Research indicates, it said, that the common approach to BESS fires is to let them burn out instead of actively fighting them. This requires local volunteer firefighters to maintain and control the area around the fire for “an extended period of time.”
The Town Board is concerned that such fires could release harmful toxins into the environment.
Sensitive areas in Pound Ridge include the Croton and Long Island Sound watersheds, the Mill River, Trinity Lake, Siscowit Reservoir, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation (a county park), wetlands, and schools.
Before making its move, the Town Board looked at the way other municipalities had regulated BESS. Those included North Salem, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, and North Castle.
In New York state, when a city, town, or village amends its zoning regulations via local law, it must be filed in the office of the Secretary of State within 20 days of adoption. The law generally does not take effect until that filing is complete.
The town’s BESS moratorium remains in effect in the meantime.
Conservation Board Chair Melinda Avellino raised concerns about some of the wording in the ordinance, which gives the town the “flexibility” to install a solar array with a BESS on property it owns, such as the highway garage.
Any leftover energy could potentially be used at, for instance, the Town House on Westchester Avenue.
This might create a “loophole” that might allow the town “to entertain large-scale facilities.”
Councilman Dan Paschkes assured Avellino that under no scenario – other than the state declaring eminent domain – could some entity “force” the town to allow a BESS of any size on its property.
He couldn’t imagine that the current, or future, board would go for such a thing, calling it “political suicide,” especially after such lengths had been taken to craft a zoning ordinance saying that the town doesn’t want large-scale BESS within its borders.
Supervisor Kevin Hansan asked the town’s attorney, Bill Harrington, to jump in.
“I would just note initially that I think the language is fine, and I think perfection is the enemy of the good,” he said, pointing out that town property consists of parkland, the highway garage, and the Town House.
Parkland can’t be “alienated” without an act of the state Legislature, the Town House property is “burdened” by a conservation easement from the C F. Roe Slade Foundation since the 1970s, and the highway department is located in the middle of a residential area and “has all kinds of issues,” Harrington said.
He understood the “philosophical point” Avellino was trying to make but didn’t understand “how playing with the language” was “going to make it any more clear.”
As for some future board’s being inclined to allow large-scale BESS, no one’s going to propose such an expensive facility unless the town unequivocally amends the code, Harrington said.
“All that being said, I think the language is fine for our purposes given the reality of the circumstances that we deal with as a town,” he concluded.
“If Bill’s comfortable with it, I’m comfortable with it. I think the intent is all there. I think it’s clear,” Hansan said.
The board voted unanimously for the resolution re-adopting the zoning ordinance.
Avellino told Halston Media that her intent in questioning the wording was simply to ensure that there wouldn’t be any chance for confusion down the road.
Otherwise, she was “thrilled” that the new BESS ordinance had passed.
“After 18 months of moratoriums, I’m happy it’s behind us,” she said.
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