A Chicago company's plans to construct a solar farm in Columbia County could encounter a legal roadblock in the near future.
Hecate Energy's proposal to build a 255-acre solar farm in the town of Copake along County Route 7-A has been long debated. Now, the town is considering filing a lawsuit accusing New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting of employing regulations in violation of state law.
Town Supervisor Jeanne Mettler maintains the project, known as Shepherd's Run, is contrary to the town's comprehensive plan, farmland protection plan, and zoning laws. She adds Copake has a zoning law in place limiting the size of solar installations to 10 acres or less, but concedes a state siting process passed during 2020 state budget negotiations changed that, circumventing local ordinances. The town board got involved last week.
"...at our June meeting, the board passed a resolution. We were unanimous in agreeing that we will sign on to a lawsuit, a potential lawsuit to sue New York state over the ORES regulations. We feel that or a city challenged. The litigation is evolving now. So I don't have a lot of details, but we expect to have more details in the weeks to come."
Mettler says the town "will not be paying the bills for the lawsuit." She declined to elaborate.
Darin Johnson with Sensible Solar for Rural New York, a non-partisan coalition focused on Shepherd's Run, thinks he knows why the town is preparing to litigate the project.
"Because Hecate has failed to come to the table and have serious discussions and negotiations with the town on how to right side and create a project that respects our community, and they haven't done it. And so I think, you know, the next step, if the governor's office is going to fail, you know, to make good on their promise to protect farmland in New York state, you know, and they're going to, you know, they've advanced now regulations that basically disregard all environmental review. It's time to litigate this thing."
Hecate says the lawsuit is an issue between town and state.
Supporters of the project say the 65-megawatt project will help mitigate climate change and minimally impact the town. Juan-Pablo Velez is with Friends of Columbia Solar.
"I understand the point of view, the concern about, you know, the visual impact, I would just say that 80 acres of solar panels works out to 0.3% of the area of the town. So it's really not, I don't know that it can destroy the whole town if you're taking less than 1% of the town and putting panels on it."
A spokesperson for the Office of Renewable Energy Siting says the agency will not speculate on potential litigation.
