Solar flare-up: Residents sue Pine Plains over plans

PINE PLAINS — A group of neighbors and landowners near the proposed community solar project at Pulvers Corners has filed a legal action in New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County seeking an injunction prohibiting any work at the site.

The group of residents, adopting the name Preserve Pine Plains, filed an Article 78 action against the town Planning Board, certain property owners and developers of the project, which envisions a Tier 3 solar field consisting of 24,000 solar panels on farmland at Pulvers Corners.

The Planning Board gave the project a green light Nov. 28 after months of review and many public meetings, workshops and hearings. On Dec. 27, Preserve Pine Plains filed its request to halt the project, opposing the actions of the Planning Board under an Article 78 proceeding, a legal provision that challenges the actions of a local board.

The suit specifically disputes the Planning Board’s issuance of a special use permit under town zoning laws to allow Carson Power LLC to move ahead with the project. The suit also cites the Planning Board’s earlier findings that the project would not have a negative environmental impact and subsequent issuance of a negative State Environmental Quality Review Act determination on August 23. The SEQRA determination allowed the project to bypass an often protracted state-managed environmental review.

“The Article 78 legal action intends to block any further efforts towards the construction of 24,000, 12-foot high photovoltaic panels on 42 acres of pristine farmland and prevent the clear-cutting of 26 acres of mature forest,” the petitioners said in a press release (according to current plans, 22 acres of forest are slated for cutting). “The residents group seeks to nullify any actions of the Planning Board with regard to it’s permissive SEQRA determination and its issuance of an illegal Special Use Permit directly in conflict with the Town Zoning Laws and The Town Comprehensive Plan.”

The petition states: “The Comprehensive Plan establishes 18 goals, and none of those goals convey a community desire to promote a land use that results in a loss of forest land and agricultural land or ones that adversely impact community character, reduce habitats, or change the rural, pastoral nature of Pine Plains. Yet the Project does all of these things.”

The petitioners are Pavan Gattani, Anna Maria Gattani, Kathleen Vuillet Augustine and James Pinto.

Andrew Gordon, a senior project manager with Carson Power, told The New Pine Plains Herald: “We are disappointed that this group decided to move forward with this action. We made a substantial effort over the last year to work with folks in the neighborhood and address their concerns.”

In the months-long course of reviewing the project, the Planning Board made an environmental assessment that examined potential impacts on land, geology, surface water, ground water, plants and animals, agricultural resources, aesthetics, noise, odor and light, human health and consistency with the town’s Comprehensive Plan and community character.

The board concluded that the impact across these impact areas was mostly “none” or in some cases “small” or “not significant” or “mitigated.” In the case of consistency with the Comprehensive Plan it found “no conflict” and with regard to community character, the impact was “not significant enough.”

On Aug. 23, the board concluded that the Carson Power project “will not have an adverse environmental impact,” meaning that a “Draft Environmental Impact Statement will not be prepared.”

A week before, on Aug. 17, following months of deliberation on the Carson application and heavily attended hearings that featured community concern and opposition to the project, the board declared a moratorium on projects like the Carson project, while exempting Carson from the new prohibition:

“The Town Board has determined that it would be in the best interests of the Town and its citizens to place a moratorium on future applications for Tier 3 solar facilities until such time as the Town Board can review its current Zoning Code and other land use regulations and, if necessary, consider appropriate modifications or changes to its current laws with regard to the siting and approval of Tier 3 solar facilities.”

The moratorium still is in effect.

“The Planning Board failed to take a ‘Hard Look’ at significant adverse project impacts due to the project’s inconsistency” with the Comprehensive Plan and community character, the petition states. Under New York State’s SEQRA protocol, the lead agency must systematically assess, or “take a hard look,” at every potential impact.

Those named in the suit, besides the Planning Board, are Pulvers Corner Solar 1 LLC, Pulvers Corners Solar 2 LLC, Nexamp, Inc., Carson Power, Carol Giardino, Diane Weck, Lucie M. Giardino and John Does.

The plaintiff’s attorney is the Zoghlin Group, PLLC, Rochester, N.Y.

Supreme Court Justice Christi Acker, whose spouse, Steve Patterson, is a member of the Planning Board, recused herself from the case.