Rome planning board approves 4.2 MW Old Oneida Road solar array with conditions

The City of Rome Planning Board voted unanimously in April 2025 to conditionally approve a site plan for a 4.2-megawatt solar array on roughly 20 acres at 5792 Old Oneida Road submitted by Emeren US LLC.

Board members said the approval is contingent on several conditions identified by city staff and the board's third-party reviewer, including final technical revisions, permits and execution of a host community agreement. Danielle Salisbury of the Department of Community and Economic Development recommended conditional approval, citing a March 27 third-party review letter and saying the applicant had addressed “all the substantial comments” from the initial review.

The board took the application off the table, heard updates from the applicant and a third-party reviewer, and discussed outstanding items before the vote. Sterling, the third-party reviewer, told the board that the applicant had added fencing and landscaping buffers and supplied updated visual simulations that show how buffers might look in later years. Sterling said the remaining comments were largely technical and aimed at ensuring compliance with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines and would not alter the site layout.

A member of the public who identified themselves as an Old Oneida Road resident urged the board to reject the project, citing zoning and comprehensive-plan language and warning about impacts to agricultural land and property values. The resident also urged the board to prohibit future battery storage at the site; the board did not adopt a battery ban as a condition in the action recorded at the meeting.

City staff and consultants indicated the conditions the board placed on approval include: (1) revisions to submitted materials per the March 27 review letter from Barton and (the transcript reference) “the Judas,” (2) finalizing permits and securities listed in the reviewer’s coordination items 1–6 prior to issuance of a building permit, and (3) execution of a host community agreement with the city prior to a building permit. The board also noted that a remediation bond or other acceptable surety with the city, per the host community agreement and the third-party review, would be required to cover end-of-project decommissioning or restoration.

The planning board motion to approve the site plan with the conditions outlined by CED carried unanimously. The board did not identify any additional waivers or variances in its action, and staff instructed the applicant to supply the outstanding technical materials and execute the host community agreement before receiving a stamped final site plan or building permit.

The project materials included visual simulations showing planting at installation and at later maturity; the third-party reviewer said those simulations and the stormwater responses had largely addressed initial concerns, leaving mainly technical/modeling items to be finalized. The board and staff emphasized that multiple permits and coordination with state and city agencies remain necessary before construction could begin.

The board’s conditional approval advances the project to final plan-stamping and permitting steps; the applicant must satisfy the listed technical and legal conditions before work or permitting proceeds.