WINDHAM — The town of Windham is placing a six-month moratorium on commercial solar and wind projects as the town works to craft legislation for renewable energy farms.
The moratorium is focused exclusively on commercial solar and wind projects, not residential solar panels on residents’ homes.
The board passed the local law pertaining to the moratorium unanimously at its board meeting Thursday night and the pause will be in effect through June 30.
“We have no guidelines currently,” Windham Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt said following the meeting. “With this renewable energy push, I want to be prepared. So if somebody comes with a project for our town, we have the right guidance to say it’s got to have setbacks and there’s a plan to decommission it. All of that good stuff that has to be in a solar law.”
Hoyt noted that no outside company has approached Windham about establishing a large-scale solar or wind farm in the town, but the town wants to make sure it has legislation in place if such a project emerges.
“The law allows a municipality that’s contemplating working on a substantive solar law to close the door and say for the next six months that we’re not accepting any applications because we have a moratorium as we work on the law that will address this,” Greene County Legislator Larry Gardner said. “So we’re pausing the process for anyone that wants to come in and do this.”
The local law states that Windham “desires to adopt regulations that govern commercial solar-fueled electric generating facilities and commercial wind-fueled electric generating facilities.”
During the public hearing for the moratorium on Thursday, no members of the public chose to speak for or against the local law.
During the course of the six-month moratorium, the law states that the town board will not grant any approvals which would result in the establishment of any renewable energy facilities, while the Windham Planning Board will not approve any permits or site plans that would result in the creation of wind or solar farms in the municipality.
“This is for huge projects where people want to buy five acres and put down four acres of solar panels,” Gardner said.
There are no renewable energy facilities in the town currently, but the town wants to have guidelines in place if an energy company arrives to pitch one.
“There’s nothing here anyway, so someone could just come to our planning board and say, ‘Here’s my site plan,’” Hoyt said.
The town has also seen a surge in home buyers in the last 24 months, as Windham Assessor Richard Tollner explained in his report to the board that 560 home sales have been completed in the town in the last two years.
That figure represents 20% of the total homes in the town that have changed hands in two years.
“It’s incredible,” Tollner told the board. “An average for this area is like four or five percent per year. We’re averaging over 10% per year. It’s working out quite well for everybody.”
Hoyt said the town has a quality of life that is attracting new people to Windham.
“There’s a lot of interest for people coming into the town, and without sounding like a jerk, we are Windham,” he said. “We have something that people want. It’s the beauty of our town.”
The supervisor said the influx of new residents in the town is coming at the same time as new businesses are investing in Windham, like the renovations the Wylder Hotel group is making to the former Thompson House resort.
“We take it as a positive,” Hoyt said. “It’s the same with the group buying the Thompson House. When someone’s going to put $20 million into the town, we have something special here.”