Sharon, Cobleskill consider solar farm regs

5/12/2015

By Patsy Nicosia

Sharon, Cobleskill consider solar farm regs

The Town of Sharon has agreed to a six-month moratorium on solar farms, while the Town of Cobleskill is hoping to get some PILOTs for any projects there.
Sharon's Joint Planning Board will spend the next six months working with consultant Nan Stolzenburg to establish the appropriate zones for both commercial solar farms and individual installations and come up with height and setback requirements.
The moratorium grew out of an inquiry a few months ago from Rob Collier, manager of product development for OneEnergy Renewables of Seattle, Washington, for a project called Birdseye Solar on Route 20, across from the old Belvedere Motel.
Sharon currently has no regulations in place regulating either commercial or residential solar farms.
"We don't have any problem with solar, but we don't want to see our agricultural space filled up with solar farms," said Supervisor Sandra Manko Wednesday.
Ann Adams, a member of the Planning Board, agreed that it's an issue that needs to be looked at and called six months a reasonable timeframe.
The Schoharie County Planning Commission has already ruled the moratorium is only of local concern and not countywide significance.
No solar installations will be permitted during the moratorium, unless the town adopts the Joint Planning Board's recommendations before them.
The moratorium could also be extended by six months.
In Cobleskill Monday, Supervisor Leo McAllister said his town is seeing more interest in solar and wind and he's concerned about a section of real property tax law he believes is stacked too much in developers' favor.
A developer who buys a piece of land and then puts a solar or wind farm on it, Mr. McAllister said, would be taxed only on the value of the land-not the improvements, no matter how extensive.
"The green energy industry gets a lot of incentives from the government now," he said, and there's no reason for the town to be adding to them.
Solar and wind farms are only permitted as PDDs-planned development districts-in the town.
Mr. McAllister said he'd like to see some sort of regulations that would have their developers make payments in lieu of taxes and councilmen agreed to forward the request to the Planning Board.
"I think you're following the right path," said Assessor Alan Danforth.