Amending Solar Law Will Give Flexibility for Tree Preservation - TAPinto.net
Trees or solar panels? We need large-scale solar panel installations to provide clean, sustainable electricity, but should trees be sacrificed to make room for solar panels? We need trees and woodlands too for their myriad ecological functions, such as:
• Providing oxygen and absorbing air pollution
• Stabilizing soil
• Tempering noise and providing visual buffering
• Providing beneficial microclimates, reducing heating, and cooling costs
Solar installations provide none of these essential functions. So, it’s in our best interest to reach a thoughtful land use balance between solar technology and trees.
Yet Yorktown seems determined to cut down thousands of trees and acres of woodlands for solar panels. Town Board members assure us that existing environmental regulations will protect trees and woodlands, yet permits are in the works for large-scale tree cutting and woodland clearing with grossly inadequate mitigation plans.
According to the Tree and Woodland Protection Law, the goal of a mitigation plan “is to replace the functions carried out by the protected trees and woodlands affected by the proposed activity.” The proposed mitigation plan for the removal of 1,871 trees by clear-cutting 15 acres on the Foothill Solar site barely gives lip service to the functions of trees and woodlands. Substantive environmental, scientific issues raised by the Yorktown Conservation Board (Sept. 1, 2021) are ignored, while the proposed mitigation plan does include feel-good, but irrelevant, measures like a contribution to the Capellini Community Center.
If, after a thorough assessment of the functions of the trees and woodlands on a site (which hasn’t happened for Foothill Street), it’s determined that these functions cannot be replaced by a feasible, yet meaningful mitigation plan, i.e. that the requirements of the Tree and Woodland Protection Law cannot be met, then there needs to be a mechanism for the town to decide which is in its best interests for a particular site: a large scale solar installation or a functioning woodland ecosystem.
Replacing the special use permit procedure as found in the current solar law with a rezoning based on a floating zone would give the Town Board greater flexibility in siting these industrial installations in residential neighborhoods and help achieve a better balance between solar panels and trees. I urge the Town Board to consider such an amendment to the Solar Power Law.
The opinions expressed herein are the writer's alone, and do not reflect the opinions of TAPinto.net or anyone who works for TAPinto.net. TAPinto.net is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the writer. Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor.
source: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/yorktown/articles/amending-solar-law-will-give-flexibility-for-tree-preservation
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.