Little Falls adopts one-year moratorium on battery energy storage systems

The Little Falls Town Board on March 10 adopted Local Law #1-2026, imposing a one-year moratorium on the processing, permitting and construction of battery energy storage systems in the town.

The law, adopted unanimously as Resolution #36, takes effect immediately upon filing with the New York State Secretary of State and remains in force for one year or until the town adopts a permanent local law on battery energy storage systems. The resolution records that a public hearing on March 10 received "no comments against the passage of Local Law #1-2026."

The moratorium’s finding language states that "without a temporary halt on the processing, permitting and approvals for battery energy storage systems, there is the potential that such uses could be located in unsuitable areas within the Town or installed in such a manner so as to alter the fabric of the community," and that such uses "could have materially adverse and irreversible impacts on the Town, and may threaten the health, safety or welfare of the Town’s citizens." The text of the local law sets the town as the lead agency for follow-up SEQR work and gives the board time to draft regulations and restrictions.

Supervisor Dan Casler presided during the vote. The resolution’s adoption was recorded as unanimous: Supervisor Casler Aye; Councilmen Anthony Viscomi, Kirk Schwasnick and Kevin Sullivan Aye. The law defines a battery energy storage system for the town and specifies that the moratorium applies until the earlier of one year from its effective date or the adoption of a permanent local law on the matter.

The moratorium does not itself authorize any specific restrictions; rather, it pauses approvals while the town completes legal review and any necessary SEQR steps and drafts permitting rules. The town clerk filed the minutes and the local law language with the board’s record of the meeting.