OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon Mayville resident Karen Engstrom speaks during the public hearing regarding a moratorium on battery energy storage systems in the village.

MAYVILLE – Because the town of Chautauqua and village of Mayville are updating their Comprehensive Plan, which will include both communities, local leaders are putting in some moratoriums on green energy until the plan is completed.

During the recent village board meeting, Mayville leaders passed a one-year moratorium on new battery energy storage systems.

During the public hearing before the vote, Mayville resident Karen Engstrom said she supports the moratorium. “Recent events have shown that battery energy storage systems have very serious safety issues,” she said, citing various electric fires around the country.

Engstrom said she actually supports a full prohibition of battery energy storage systems and shared a handful of New York municipalities that have done so, including Rush in Monroe County, and Somerset and Royalton in Niagara County.

Syper said for right now, the village and town wants to finalize their Comprehensive Plan. Once that plan is completed, then the zoning and planning boards can review the village’s zoning codes.

Separately, at the Chautauqua Town Board meeting, that board approved a one-year moratorium on wind energy systems, which would include large scale turbines.

There are no turbines currently in the town. Like in Mayville, officials at the town board said they want to get their comprehensive plan updated first and then review the town’s zoning codes.

One section of the comprehensive plan is on land use. The plan calls for the village and town to “Manage renewable energy and other emerging high-impact uses (ordinance to control location, environmental and visual impact of industrial-scale solar, wind, data centers, etc.).”

At a meeting earlier this month, the consultants who are helping develop the comprehensive plan said their goal is to have it before village and town leaders sometime this summer, so it can be voted on and approved.