OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Eamon Riley, Business Development Manager from Erie Coast Solar, discussed a solar project on New Road at multiple public hearings and Sheridan Town Board meetings in recent months before the project received the board’s approval.

SHERIDAN — After pushing the project off for several months, the Sheridan Town Board voted to approve the Erie Coast Solar project on New Road at a recent meeting.

The project initially held a public hearing to address the environmental impact of the project in May. The Environmental Assessment Review document required for the project’s approval was accepted at the regular meeting later that night.

After that, the project was then scheduled for a public hearing in June for the site plans and special use permit, but the hearing was rescheduled after the death of John Walker II, the Sheridan Town Supervisor at the time of his passing. The public hearing was then set for the July monthly meeting of the Town Board.

After the public hearing to address the site plans and the special use permit, Erie Coast Solar Business Development Manager Eamon Riley was told the board was not prepared to take action on the project that night.

“Upon the advice of our lawyer, we’re going to table it until the next meeting so we can have a few more discussions with you on a few of the points,” Deputy Town Supervisor Richard Feinen told Riley. “We’ll be in touch with you.”

The project then was brought up again at the August meeting of the Sheridan Town Board, in which new Town Supervisor Tom Wik and new Town Councilman Joe White were appointed to their current roles on the board.

Like his new peers on the Town Board did, White did not want to rush into a decision. In his first meeting as a member of the board, White opposed the project’s approval, but the majority of the board ruled it could proceed. White voted no, Feinen abstained from the vote, and the remaining members of the board voted in the project’s favor.

“I voted nay, and the reason I did was I didn’t want to rush into something,” White said. “I think we should slow down a bit. … You can’t just jump into it.”

The project in question features a 2.2-Megawatt AC facility, located on roughly 30 acres of land on New Road. The project covers 14.85 acres of the land, surrounded by a fence, with wetlands preserved on the property and no major disruption of trees or wildlife in the area.