Yorktown Planning Board approves plan to move solar project forward

A project that will serve Con Edison customers with 3.125 MWac of electricity through large-scale, ground-mounted solar panels is coming to the area.

The Yorktown Planning Board approved a decision statement during its June 8 meeting that would allow the solar farm proposed for Jacob Road to move forward.

The project now needs permits from the building and engineering departments and a map of the proposed site signed by the planning department before construction can begin. The project was granted site plan approval and approval for a special use permit during the meeting that night.

The decision statement comes three years after the project was first proposed and heard extensively before the Yorktown Planning Board and Yorktown Town Board. The town board allowed the project to proceed after it passed a local law stopping other large-scale solar projects from being put up in residential zones.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Planning Board Chair Richard Fon told Yorktown News after the meeting. “I know the Town Board really struggled with this when they were looking at the moratorium, and they excluded it moving forward so that we were able to proceed with the project,” Fon said.

The project, which is for constructing a large-scale solar facility that will bring 3.125 MWac of electricity to the local Con Edison network at 1805 Jacob Rd. on 20.3 acres of land, has been controversial and has created much discussion and opposition over the years.

“The planning board, town staff, and the town board really took a hard look at solar, the benefits of solar, how it should be designed and made sure there aren’t any visual or other impact. I think it’s a project the town should be proud of when it comes out live,” said David Cooper, attorney for the applicant Freestone Renewables, in an interview with Yorktown News. “Freestone is very happy with the decision and excited to be part of the Yorktown community."

Constructing the large-scale solar facility, according to Cooper, will push Westchester County closer to reaching its state-mandated goals set forth by NYSERDA for providing individuals with renewable energy.

NYSERDA’s goal is for New York to generate 70 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030 under its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, according to the NYSERDA website.

With the local law passed in Yorktown prohibiting more solar farms from being built in residential areas, Cooper said there may not be more opportunities in Yorktown for building solar farms but said that the Jacob Road project approval is “a step in the right direction.”

The Jacob Road facility could also help people with Con Edison as their electricity provider save up to 20 percent on the electric bills and can reduce costs that energy companies like Con Edison spend on transmitting electricity to their consumers, according to Cooper. Cooper said in some instances companies like Con Edison have to go as far away as Canada to transmit electricity to New York.

But Cortlandt residents expressed concerns about the solar panels, saying they will be too close to the nearby property lines, would be an eyesore to the neighborhood, and could leach chemicals into the ground. Battery backup systems have raised concerns in Yorktown and throughout Westchester County.

The project was also heard extensively before the Yorktown Town Board, before it approved the solar ban. The Jacob Road solar project was omitted from the law because the application was already being heard before the planning board and was allowed to proceed with those hearings.

Councilwoman Susan Siegel opposed the grandfathering law and noted that an earlier version of the solar law would not have allowed grandfathering.

Siegel said she voted against the law because Jacob Road had to change its original plan based on the new law that had different setback requirements. Those new requirements were written into the law specifically to accommodate the Jacob Road solar panel project as the rest of the law prohibited any other solar farms.

Residents and some members of the town board have called the town board “hypocritical” for allowing the project to continue after the solar law ban was imposed.

“We understand that there’s a lot of residents from Cortland concerned. We’ve heard their concerns. We believe we’ve taken mitigation steps that will address their concerns,” Fon said.

The project will also include a nature trail and 5-acre preserve.

The planning board also approved a negative declaration, determining the project will not have a significant environmental impact.