Cheektowaga board hears developers on Indian Road solar project as neighbors raise safety, visual and decommissioning concerns

AC Power representatives presented the proposed Indian Road Solar Project to the Town of Cheektowaga Town Board at its Jan. 14, 2025 work session, describing a roughly 3.25-megawatt (AC) community-scale array to be installed on about 20 acres of a 42-acre closed and capped landfill near Indian Road.

The presentation matters because the project would place solar infrastructure atop a capped municipal landfill in an area that spans parts of Cheektowaga and Depew, and because residents submitted petitions and comments to the town. AC Power said the principal remaining Town action is site-plan approval; the company said the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a use variance in August 2021 and that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a Type II determination for solar on landfill, which AC Power said requires no further environmental review.

Gina Wolfman, team lead and senior director of project development at AC Power, said the firm specializes in siting solar on previously disturbed land and “we only develop these types of sites. We don't build on farmland.” Alex Kaven of Tetra Tech, AC Power’s engineering and environmental consultant, described the layout and engineering controls, saying the array will be ballasted on concrete blocks…