BY CRAIG FREILICH

North Country This Week

POTSDAM – The Town of Potsdam has approved a new local law to regulate larger solar array projects in light of growing interest from people proposing commercial photovoltaic installations.

The Town Council approved the law at their Sept. 10 meeting.

Potsdam has this year worked out the new zoning provisions to accommodate the growing number of people making inquiries to the town with plans for solar arrays.

“We haven’t had any applications yet, but there definitely have been inquiries,” said Town of Potsdam Code Enforcement Officer Mike Boysuk.

It is too early to discuss specifics, he said, but “we’ve had three of four actual companies inquiring, and another three or four inquiries from people just ‘spitballing’ the idea.”

The inquiries began before the question of new code language came up, and the board decided to put a moratorium on approval of any commercial-sized photovoltaic projects until the code could be revised. Many other communities decided the same thing at the same time.

The Potsdam moratorium was set for six months, but revising the code took longer than that. The rush to update local laws turned into a statewide movement as various municipalities swapped ideas and compared measures to enact new code language.

In Potsdam, the emphasis was on protecting farmland, Boysuk and his co-code enforcement officer Jim Plumley said.

“We needed a section of code that dealt with zoning to preserve as much farmland as we can,” Plumley said.

The whole code should “encourage smart growth in a way that’s not harmful to neighbors,” expressing other community-wide concerns including keeping farmland from being gobbled up for development.

“You know the old saying: ‘They don’t make land anymore,” Boysuk said.

A year ago the town itself was thinking about putting a solar array on an old covered and sealed landfill on 167 acres east of Norwood.

Town Supervisor Ann Carvill said at an August 2018 meeting that the Reynolds Road landfill, "covered, sealed and unusable, unused for decades," was being considered for development that would leave the underlying brownfield-like site undisturbed. Nothing more has been heard on that so far.

The code lays out in detail where and how solar arrays can be erected in the township outside the villages with particular emphasis on larger arrays that are commercial in nature or which will generate electricity for off-site use.

It differentiates between building-integrated solar systems – for instance a roof surface made of solar panels – and a building-mounted system – panels mounted on an existing roof -- and between large- and small-scale ground mounted systems.

It also takes into account things such as the effects of glare from solar panels on neighbors.

The code states a preference for plantings under and around an array rather than paving, and would limit the extent of service roads, to maintain good drainage.

It also spells out procedures to be used when an array is to be removed, whether by an active operator or under abandonment conditions.

The Code Enforcement Office couldn’t say if or when any new solar arrays will pop up, but said they believed it would not be long before applications are submitted.