YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — After a lengthy public hearing fueled a 4.5-hour meeting on July 1, the Yorktown Town Board returned on July 8 for a work session that covered solar law recommendations, plans for a new firehouse, a stormwater pollution prevention plan for a Foothill Street property, and it approved a handful of resolutions.
Members of the public can watch the July 8 work session, along with other Town Board meetings and meetings of boards and committees such as the Planning Board, Senior Advisory Committee, and others, by visiting yorktownny.gov/ygtv. Residents can also subscribe to the town’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@townofyorktownny896/.
At its June 3 meeting, the Town Board had been expected to vote on whether or not to adopt a negative declaration to amend Chapter 300-81.4, titled “Solar Power Generation Systems and Facilities,” but Supervisor Ed Lachterman said he preferred to wait until the board received full comments from the Climate Smart Communities Task Force.
Those came on July 8, when the often-heated topic of solar returned to the agenda.
Town residents, members of county organizations, and others have previously spoken both for and against the proposed ban. Supporters of the ban cited the need to protect the town’s character, proponents of solar emphasized the importance of renewable energy, and urged the board to evaluate applications on a case-by-case basis.
Sarah Wilson, a member of the town’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force, presented five recommendations to the board and emphasized that the advisory group, which works to reduce, mitigate and adapt to climate change, is against prohibiting solar altogether.
The task force's recommendations include a two-step permit process; a "reasonable" limit on the number of projects approved annually (instead of a complete ban); recycling transparency; resident-first community solar; and Town of Yorktown municipal community solar.
Wilson said the task force would like to see several changes in the draft law, including tighter setbacks and height limits, as well as more defined fencing and landscaping requirements. She also recommended including provisions that give Yorktown residents and the municipality first rights to solar subscriptions. In addition, the task force supports continued assignment of applications to the Planning Board and wants large-scale solar to remain allowed in residential zones.
Wilson said that the position of the task force is “We need it; we want it to be allowed here in Yorktown.”
She added that the task force believes the town should lift the moratorium currently in place.
“We don’t want to prohibit,” she said, acknowledging that, if followed, the presented recommendations would allow “some of these projects to move forward.”
Lachterman said the board will consider the task force's recommendations and appreciated the dialog with Wilson.
“I think part of the reason that we’re back here is—we’ve spoken about a prohibition. We've spoken about maybe grandfathering. We've spoken about allowance with different regulations,” Lachterman said. “There’s a lot of discourse on the board as to what is the true solution, because it's very complex.”
Councilman Sergio Esposito said that the criteria presented “had a lot of merit” and added that the recommendations needed to be “fleshed out.” Lachterman said he wanted to clarify some of the points on, and said he has some information he’d like to get from legal counsel.
Councilwoman Susan Siegel said the board should give the Conservation Board an opportunity to address the council way the Climate Smart Communities Task Force did. Other board members supported that idea.
The reporter on this story can be reached at ferrante@halstonmedia.com.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here