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Town of Union approves conditional PUD rezoning for Titan Agrivoltaic project
Summary
The Town Board approved rezoning 8.83 acres at 1215 Rhodes Road to a Planned Unit Development and a preliminary PUD for the Titan Agrivoltaic project, conditioned on execution of a PILOT, Host Community Agreement, Decommissioning Agreement and Storm Water Maintenance Agreement before Planning Board site-plan review. Vote: unanimous.
The Town of Union Board on June 19 approved rezoning an 8.83-acre portion of 1215 Rhodes Road to Planned Unit Development and granted conditional approval for the Titan Agrivoltaic Preliminary PUD Development Plan, with the board requiring that the developer finalize several binding agreements with the town before proceeding to Planning Board site-plan review.
Supervisor Robert Mack opened the public hearing on the proposal. Terrence Nolan of LodeStar Energy presented updated plans for the agrivoltaic project and said the developer had engaged in repeated outreach: "I have given multiple presentations of our project with each one showing targeted improvements," Nolan said. Engineer Websly Darbouze described drainage revisions, saying the majority of runoff will be directed into the SWPPP once it is completed.
Town Attorney Alan J. Pope explained the legal and procedural implications of PUD zoning in the town: "With a PUD, they would have to come back to the Board to tell us their uses as part of their development plan ... if the developer does not pull a building permit within a year or they don’t begin construction, it’ll stay zoned PUD but their development plan that was approved, goes away." Councilman Thomas R. Augostini asked what would happen if the rezone were approved but the project did not materialize; Pope reiterated that an approved development plan would terminate automatically if construction did not begin within a year, and a developer would have to start the approval process anew.
The board adopted two related resolutions. One amended the town's Solar Energy Law to require that a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Agreement, Host Community Agreement (HCA), Decommissioning Agreement and Storm Water Maintenance Agreement be negotiated and agreed to by the Town Board before any PUD application is accepted by the Planning Board; the other approved the rezoning and the Titan Agrivoltaic Preliminary PUD Development Plan on the express condition that the developer obtain and execute those agreements with the Town prior to Planning Board site-plan review. Both motions passed with all five members voting yes.
Resident feedback during the hearing tended toward cautious support: Jeff Mitchell of 69 East Main Road said the proposed project "is a good idea" and praised LodeStar's transparency. Several nearby property owners had previously raised drainage concerns; the developer's engineering revisions were presented as addressing those issues.
The board's action advances the rezoning and preserves the board's leverage over the project by requiring negotiated agreements before planning review can proceed. If the developer later fails to obtain permits or to begin construction within the town's one-year development-plan timeline, the approved development plan would automatically terminate and any developer would need to restart approvals under the PUD zoning.
The Town Board voted unanimously to adopt the resolutions; the approvals are conditioned on the agreements described above and further Planning Board review.
