Submitted Photo Pictured is a solar project in the town of Charlotte.

As more solar projects are proposed in the area, county officials are providing municipalities a tool to help them properly plan for them when they’re no longer working.

The Chautauqua County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, along with the county Planning Department, announced it has created a template of recommendations for developing and/or updating local municipal laws specific to decommissioning utility-scale solar facilities.

According to Rebecca Wurster with the county Planning Department, they’ve also created a mapping tool that can allow municipalities to identify property and look at the surrounding infrastructure related with that site.

“The Ag Farmland Protection Board really wanted to ensure that developers and operations are held responsible for the financial and physical removal of the projects after their lifespan or after a period of no generation,” she said during the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting.

The county Farmland Protection Board has also expressed a desire to ensuring soils are restored to their original productivity after the lifespan of these solar projects.

The county has had a number of solar projects be brought up in recent years. Last year alone, the county Planning Board reviewed 15 different projects and the county Industrial Development Agency approved tax breaks for seven different solar projects. Most of the time, the county IDA won’t approve Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreements unless the host municipality has already given its approval for the project.

According to the county Department of Planning and Development, the template provides municipal leaders with recommendations based on research, best practices, and guidance documents. The county reviewed numerous municipal solar laws, reached out to solar developers to evaluate specific decommissioning plans, reviewed New York State Energy Research and Development Agency and New York State Department of Agriculture and Market’s guidance documents, considered the American Planning Association and New York Planning Federation’s recommendations, and reviewed the Solar Energy Industries Association’s resources.

The template is a compilation of recommendations/best practices that the county Planning Department was able to aggregate from many different sources.

“I am pleased that we are able to balance the desires of property owners and municipalities to host these projects, with the concerns that all of us have with ensuring they don’t cause short and long-term issues,” said Mark Geise, deputy county executive for economic development. “I appreciate the County’s Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board for bringing these concerns to our attention, and for the diligent work of the Planning Department for creating this template. I hope the municipalities find it useful.”

“A decommissioning plan is a crucial part of all solar projects. I am pleased with the decommissioning template our Department of Planning and Development has created for municipalities,” said Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel.

The solar decommissioning template and online municipal resource mapper is available online at https://planningchautauqua.com/resources/municipal-resources/