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Residents and attorney say Ancram solar will harm viewshed, urge SEQRA review
Summary
Neighbors and counsel challenged Rick Energy's visuals and filings, arguing earlier statements that arrays would not be visible were false and asking the board to require a full SEQRA environmental impact statement or deny the application.
Several residents and their attorney pressed the planning board to treat visual impacts as potentially significant and to require a full SEQRA environmental impact statement. "They said it would not be visible from any public vantage points," attorney Raya Mallett told the board, and she said that earlier filings and the applicant's EAF understated visibility. Mallett urged the board to require a full EIS or deny the application, arguing that the Harkin viewshed analysis shows multiple vantage points with potential adverse impacts.
Neighbors described field, road and residence views they said would be affected when trees are bare. "These industrial solar arrays won't be green in color and neither will the long snaking industrial road permanently installed to service this complex," resident Matthew Tuck said, describing impacts to Millerhurst Farm and scenic roads. The board and its consultant said visual impact assessment results and a Part 3 SEQRA determination will be used to decide whether the impact is "significant" under state law; the board is waiting on an independent VIA report and landscape consultant input before making that determination.
