The Towns of Carlisle and Seward got some as-expected news late Monday.
But that didn’t make it any easier to hear:
The state Office of Renewable Energy Siting has ruled Cypress Creek’s application for the 20MW Rock Creek Solar project complete and issued a temporary permit for it.
That doesn’t mean construction begins.
What it does mean is that Cypress Creek has 60 days to solicit public comment on the project through a hearing or hearings in one or both towns, said Carlisle Supervisor John Leavitt.
That will also be the time for Carlisle and Seward to resubmit their comments and concerns, Mr. Leavitt said, nearly all of it already posted on the ORES site.
Mr. Leavitt said he was notified by attorney Dylan Harris Monday that the ORES had ruled on the application.
By Tuesday, it was posted on the ORES site.
The application was initially submitted to ORES on April 18, 2023, then amended nine times to provide incomplete or missing information with the last submission made on May 30.
Before it was moved to ORES, it was under local review.
ORES could have asked for still more information, Mr. Leavitt said, or ruled they had all they needed.
“No later than 60 days following the date of this letter [June 10], this Office will publish on its website through the ORES Portal a draft siting permit for public comment or a statement of intent to deny this permit…” the notice reads in part.
That doesn’t mean they have 60 days, Mr. Leavitt pointed out; any hearings could come sooner.
“We’re going to look at every issue we can possibly look at and try everything we can try and make Cypress Creek respond,” he said.
On the towns’ list of concerns: the loss of tax revenues, loss of property values, and the project's impact on Amish schools and roads.
No one’s optimistic that they’ll be able to stop Rock Creek Solar.
But they’re going down fighting.
Even before they’d heard the ORES news, Citizens Against Solar Abuse members Marge Lawston and Bill Toohey had plans to meet with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s office; they’d already met with Assemblyman Chris Tague and State Senator Peter Oberacker, Ms. Lawston said Monday in Seward.
Both the Carlisle and Seward Planning Boards are reviewing their land use codes and Carlisle’s has just imposed a six-month moratorium on wind, solar, and battery storage projects.
“I’m going to be like Custer on that hill…if I’ve got to go down, I’m going down fighting,” Mr. Leavitt said.
Ms. Lawston, who lives in Seward, but overlooking the Brown Road, Carlisle site, said the same.
“I don’t want to say I didn’t try,” she said.
As proposed, Rock District Solar would be in two towns, 80 percent of it in Carlisle and 20 percent in Seward.
According to Cypress Creek’s application, total acreage is about 370 acres with the fenced-in portion of the project, including landscaped buffers and all panels, 125 acres.
It will be built on both sides of Brown Road on land owned by Thomas Barbarie of 190 Brown Road; Brown Road is off of Rock District Road, which is off of Route 145 at the top of the hill.