Manorville Solar Lease
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The text below is from the 6/15 and 6/17/15 emails to EMPOA's list with an edit. The 6/18/15 update at the end and highlighted like this sentence.
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Solar arrays at the Town's Manorville Compost Facility are on the agenda for this Thursday's Town Board meeting. Councilmembers Panico and Foley are sponsoring resolutions 457 and 458 for the Town to enter into a lease for a private company, American Capital Energy, to construct and operate the new facility and also to issue a "Neg Dec". As proposed, the Neg Dec will declare that authorizing the lease "will not have a 'significant impact' on the environment, and, therefore, no Environmental Impact Statement need be prepared."
Not all the details are available publicly, at least not yet. The only supporting documents now on the Town's website are the Neg Dec and the resolutions. More supporting documents, such as the Environmental Assessment Form and the proposed lease, should be posted well prior to Thursday's meeting.
Click image for a higher-res version
The Compost Facility is the triangular area.
The solar array is proposed within the southern half.
Here's what is now known. The Town's Manorville Compost Facility sits on 33 acres at the northeast end of Papermill Road, off Chapman Boulevard. It, and all the land around it, is zoned A Residential 2. It abuts residences to its west and there are many more homes in close proximity westward. Immediately south and southeast of the facility is wooded land mostly owned by the County (with many old-filed lots in its Nature Preserve). The old railroad right of way of the Manorville Branch is along the facility's east boundary and there are 45 acres of Town-owned wooded land beyond that, then homes and the Rock Hill Golf Club to the northeast.
According to the proposed Neg Dec, the solar facility would sit on 5 already-cleared acres of the 19.6 acres used by the Compost Facility. It would have 3,860 ground mounted panels on ballasted foundations and would generate approximately 1.2 megawatts. The lease would have a term of 20 years (plus an optional 5 years) with a fixed rent of $26,000 per year for the first 20 years.
A 4.7 MW installation by the proposed lessee in Vineland, NJ.
Click image for views of other of its projects.
PSEG LI would be responsible for a 2-mile connection on public and utility rights of way to a substation "located at Railroad Avenue and the Moriches Bypass" in Center Moriches.
The Town recognizes that the SEQRA process for identifying potential significant adverse environmental impacts applies to the proposed lease. Does the information considered in the proposed Neg Dec and the referenced Environmental Assessment Form (not yet available) cover all the potential impacts and rightly conclude that they are not significant? Take a look for yourself by clicking here.
Some possible concerns not mentioned in the Neg Dec:
- Will the reduction in composting activities at the facility have impacts elsewhere in Town because either less material is being composted or it is composted elsewhere?
- No plan for screening any part of the solar facility has been disclosed so far.
- Pilots of planes flying over thousands of panels, particularly at lower elevations, might be affected by the glare (this is a recognized problem with solar arrays near airports). Spadaro and Lufker Airports are about 2 miles southeast of the Compost Facility. Will typically low-flying planes from there be impacted?
- There is no description so far of the cabling needed to get from the facility to the substation in Center Moriches and whether it will be above or below ground. Will it impact vistas?
Meanwhile, the regulations governing solar facilities in the Town seem to be in flux. A portion of the Town Code does govern such facilities (85-812 through -817), but 2 proposals to amend it have been offered and then withdrawn. The County recently adopted a model code--with significant differences from Brookhaven's current code--and Town officials were involved in its preparation. What rules are to be followed by the lessee in constructing and operating the proposed facility? Will the lease require conformance to the current Town Code? . . . to the proposed amendments? . . . or to the County's model code?
Town Law says that when a town board "lease[s] real property in the name of the town, [the] resolution shall be subject to a permissive referendum". Town Law also gives the procedures: a referendum must be held if, within 30 days after the resolution is adopted, a petition is filed asking for the referendum by voters (as specified in the law) "in number equal to at least five per centum of the total vote cast for governor in said town at the last general election". Resolution 458 recognizes this procedure.
Requests to the Town for documents giving details of the proposed solar facility at the Town's Manorville Compost Facility were made, but nothing more has been furnished (as of 4:30 pm, June 17).
However, at Monday's Town Board work session, there was a brief presentation and discussion. (The session was not broadcast live, and the video became available on the Town's website only yesterday.) A video clip of the presentation and discussion is here. The handout discussed in it was one of the documents not received.
The proposal is sponsored by Councilmen Panico and Foley. During the work session, Supervisor Romaine also seemed informed. The other council members did not comment.
If you have a position on the proposal--love it, hate it, need more information, hold a public hearing--whatever is your view, please email it to
We will tell the Town Board of the views received (with identifying information) if there are enough responses.
You can also give your views to the Town Board in 2 ways:
- Come to the Town Board meeting this Thursday and speak to the Board during the public comment period that usually starts shortly after 5 pm (3 minute max), or
Their contact information is here.
6/18/15 Update
At about 4 hours before the start of the 6/18/15 Town Board meeting, the handout given to Town Board members at their 6/15/15 work session was provided to EMPOA.
- Call or email Board members, particularly Councilman Panico and Councilwoman Foley, before the meeting.