Carlisle doesn’t need to accept the “doctrine of inevitability” when it comes to Rock District Solar.
That’s what opponents of the proposed 125-acre project urged the Carlisle Planning Board Tuesday in round #2 of a public hearing opened in December.
“Is it now time to find ways to fight the state?” neighbor Jeanne Gostling, one of those leading the fight against Cypress Creek Renewables’ 20-MW Brown Road project, asked the Planning Board.
“We don’t have money for a lawyer; that’s why they come to these communities. I ask the board to please help us pursue other avenues to stop this process.”
Rock District Solar would straddle the Towns of Carlisle and Seward.
Tuesday’s public hearing remains open and will pick up again on February 14; meanwhile, Seward will hold its own hearing at 7pm on Tuesday, January 24 at the Town Barn.
For the second time, more than 75 people crowded into the Carlisle Town Hall; there was virtually no support for the project, though Linda Cross, just-retired from the Planning Board, praised members for their work and argued it will be an economic benefit to farmers and in tax revenue, and urged them to ultimately approve it.
Farmer Dan Zeh of Black Willow Pond, Cobleskill also spoke of its benefits to farmers like him and his wife, Carrie Edsall: they’re planning to graze sheep and chickens and grow historic grains on a portion of the site.
Most of the concerns shared Tuesday had been voiced previously; Jeff Davis, attorney for Cypress Creek, said they’d respond in writing, not from the floor.
He did, however, speak to pointed insinuations that Planning Board member Charlie Rhoades, who works in construction, stands to benefit if the project is approved and should recuse himself from reviewing it.
“Is anybody here going to work on this?” asked Kirk Holmes, whose family all lives on Little York Road.
“How am I going to know?” answered Mr. Rhoades. “I put roads in. I don’t build solar farms,” adding that he’ll take the question to a lawyer.
“I think you gave us your answer,” Mr. Holmes responded.
When the question was asked again, later in the hearing, Mr. Davis answered.
“Not a single board member has been involved in any discussion of work on this project,” he said.
Several people questioned Cypress Creek’s decommissioning plan and whether $1.5 million would be enough to take the panels down 20 years from now—if they last that long.
Lenny Prezorski of Cold Spring Farm in Lawyersville, has a past career as a Soil & Water District conservationist.
Underneath most of Carlise, he said, is karst limestone—which doesn’t filter groundwater.
He also said construction will dump unfertile subsoil on top of topsoil; the land will never be the same, he said.
“We should not be putting any panels on prime farmland.”
Schoharie County Farm Bureau President John VanDerwerken, said he appreciates Mr. Zeh’s plans, but they oppose siting solar projects on prime farmland and they’re against it.