Planning Board unable to go forward with battery facility review

A proposed battery energy storage system to be located on Route 32 in Central Valley is not permitted in that district, rendering the Woodbury Planning Board unable to proceed with the review, chairperson Christopher Gerver said during the Jan. 7 planning meeting.

Corina Solis, senior project developer for New Leaf Energy, described the proposed project as a 20-megawatt hour energy storage system that is part of a larger group of sites to be deployed throughout the New York to meet the state’s energy storage goals.

Gerver informed Solis that the board sought guidance from the village’s building inspector, who said the project does not meet the definition of a public utility and is not permitted in the proposed zoning district.

“There’s no progressing at all with this board right now. The building inspector has made a determination that you’re not a public utility and it’s not permitted in the zoning district. So, at this time, there’s nothing else this board can do,” Gerver said.

Review of a self-storage unit led to discussions on the property, which was seeking retroactive approval for expansion that exceeded the maximum number of units permitted.

Jennifer Porter, representing the applicant Extra Space of Central Valley, explained that the site has operated as a self-storage facility since 1998. She said the applicant has been before the board multiple times seeking approvals for additional units, most recently in 2015, where they received approval for 437 units and increased parking.

Porter shared that the operator exceeded the limit of 437 units approved by the board, and the facility now includes 468 units.

“We’re in a situation where we are here asking for forgiveness, rather than permission,” she said, acknowledging that the expansion failed to meet the conditions of approval.

The board discussed whether the facility still met the requirements of a self-storage and questioned if it could be considered a warehouse, which would need to meet different standards for approval.

Planning Board Attorney Lino Sciarretta recommended the applicant provide a narrative demonstrating what was approved and how the site is being used. He said the board can use that information to determine whether the facility is still self-storage or has become a warehouse.

During the meeting, the board approved a draft resolution for an amended site plan for an office building in Central Valley. The application is exempt from the moratorium on new projects, as it completed its state environmental review process and received a negative declaration prior to the law going into effect in 2021.