CARMEL – Carmel Town Hall was filled to the rafters when hundreds of residents of southern Mahopac, Baldwin Place and Somers urged the town board to enact a moratorium that would limit the scope of battery storage systems including the one proposed for a 90-acre parcel of land off Miller Road at the Carmel-Somers town line that has resulted in an uproar from local residents.
Dozens of speakers addressed the board Wednesday night during the nearly four hour session urging that the moratorium be implemented to “protect the public health, safety and welfare of residents of the Town of Carmel while maintaining the status-quo by temporarily suspending the processing of land use approvals and to further suspend the rights of landowners to obtain development approvals for six months while the Town Board studies, analyzes and determines potential appropriate revisions and amendments to the Carmel Town Code regarding the propriety of solar energy systems.”
The board is now expected to approve the moratorium at its July 17 meeting.
Opponents of the project arrived an hour before the meeting started and lined up to sign-in.
Colleen Coxen expressed health and safety concerns while Ed Parzhen charged “big business does not care about this town.”
Michelle Stewart talked about the impact the proposed plant would have on property values as well as community health which she called “frightening. This project is dangerous posing a great risk on our families.”
Lauren Rosolen told the emotionally charged audience, “We need home rule so our concerns can be heard. The average failure of a battery farm is 18 months. You must value our safety,” she told the town leaders.
Another resident voicing opposition was Kevin O’Keefe who charged “battery farms pose a high risk of fire and explosion. They contaminate our streams and wells and significantly decrease property values.”
Stephanie Azadian reminded the board that battery farms “result in significant environmental harm. No research has been conducted as to long term effects on people, pets and the environment.”
Paul Harold, a retired New York City cop and September 11 survivor, who spent weeks at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks and is now battling cancer from the toxic fumes and gases breathed in, told the audience, “When battery farms catch fire, they burn for days, weeks and months.”
Carrying a sign opposing the project, Scott Maoriello forecast, “This is not the end of a long road but just the beginning. A six-month moratorium is much too short. Does Mahopac want to be known as a community home to one of the largest battery farms in all of New York State?”
Not a single comment was aired in favor of the project at session.
Previously, Scott Connuck, senior project developer for East Point Energy, explained his company was focusing on the area due to the “retirement of Indian Point. The security of the grid is at risk. In some parts of the Hudson Valley people say if the wind blows the power goes out. This won’t stop every outage that happens but can reduce the numbers.”
Connuck appeared before the planning board last fall to present the project and seek site plan approval. Town planning consultant Pat Cleary noted this was the first time the town had entertained such a project which meets the town code’s initial zoning requirements. Connuck called the Miller Road property ideal for such a project. “In our view, this site is uniquely situated for this type of project and is the best use for this site. We are adjacent to electrical infrastructure. This site has the transmission lines that we need. In addition, it is in a region of critical need. The property is isolated. We are using only a fraction of that property and it’s in the center. It will be out of sight, not heard, out of mind.”
