Appeals court hears dispute over Town of Bellinghamlease termination and access rights for ZP Battery project

Judge John Englander heard oral arguments in ZP Battery v. Town of Bellingham on whether the town properly terminated a ground lease after the permitting period and whether ZP Battery is entitled to a preliminary injunction restoring lease rights and access for a proposed battery energy storage facility.

The issue centers on whether documents captioned as "notices" or "notices of election to extend permitting period" modified the underlying ground lease so that ZP Batteryretained access and rights beyond the permitting period, or instead restricted access to the permitting period only. The parties also disputed whether ZP Batterycould finalize required surveys and permitting without an interconnection services agreement (ISA) from Eversource.

The question matters because the lease defines staged rights and payments across permitting, construction and operations periods. If the town validly terminated the lease after the permitting period, ZP Battery would lose site access and could forfeit long-term lease rights; if not, the townmay have wrongly ended the contract and an injunction could be appropriate.

"I'm gonna make a confession. I thought this case was easier than it is," Judge John Englander said at the start of argument, adding that once he read the filings he found the dispute more…