It started out as an idea for bringing in new revenue by monetizing vacant and unusable City-owned land, but the solar farm project has taken on a life of its own. The RFEI (request for expressions of interest) has received responses from three companies--BQ Energy Development, Nexamp, and AC Power LLC. The Common Council has scheduled a special meeting on Friday, November 19, at 5:00 p.m., to hear presentations from the three companies.
At the meeting of the Conservation Advisory Council on Tuesday, David Konigsberg reported that all three companies were interested in the capped landfill, which is not the area they were allegedly supposed to be considering and not the area the CAC was encouraging. In a statement submitted to the Common Council on the day the Council approved the release of the RFEI, the CAC stated: "We recommend that the capped landfill and surrounding grassland be excluded from any industrialization, including solar arrays, and that, as planned in prior deliberation, these areas continue to heal and gradually be developed as open recreational space in a city that has very little." The statement from the CAC was accompanied by an image showing the areas the CAC was recommending for solar development. Those areas are marked in fuchsia on the image below.
If the purpose of the solar farm is to bring new revenue to the City, siting the solar farm on the capped landfill would defeat the purpose, since that land is currently controlled by Columbia County and the revenue would presumably to the County not the City.
The meeting at which the three developers will make presentations takes place on Friday, November 19, at 5:00 p.m. Click here to join the Zoom meeting.
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I'm seeing way too many solar installations being sited in beautiful open spaces, where the project is quick and easy and cheap for the developer. We have plenty of blighted properties and parking lots that would serve the purpose.
ReplyDeleteGood work on the part of the CAC. As for our 2015 Agreement with the County and the Columbia Land Conservancy, has anyone in City Hall actually read it? Do they even know it exists? Will they bother to find out about it unless we push them?
ReplyDeleteDo residents grasp how poorly informed our City Hall is, and probably always was? I think the fix was in as soon as we let Mr. Bujanow get his grubby hands anywhere near our local ecology. I'm sick of this guy (he doesn't even live here), yet nobody thinks to question what this county plant is doing here, who chose him, and why.
It's unbelievable to me that we're all so stupid, until I'm reminded anew that Hudson - and the City Hall it deserves - is terminally stupid.
Incidentally, why does Real Property list both landfill parcels as belonging to the City of Hudson?
A thoughtful, beautiful plan already exists, check it out:
ReplyDeletehttps://clctrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/North-Bay-Condensed-Master-Plan-2015.pdf
This cracks me up, a so called liberal, leftie government leasing off public land to private utility companies? Sounds very Reaganomic to me.
ReplyDeleteIn a dense urban area lacking open space, it's a no-brainer: You focus on hardscape and rooftop renewables development, not open-field "solar farms" that gobble up precious riverside land. In this case, we’re talking about a capped landfill that is gradually healing from decades of abuse, that in the next generation will become suitable as parkland, and that for now has become important habitat for grassland birds that had disappeared from the City. The Columbia Land Conservancy had a much better plan for the the area that emphasized habitat and eventual recreation, starting with trails that circumvent the cap and link downtown Hudson to the 600+ acre Greenport Conservation Area. That would enable you to walk from Downtown Hudson into one of the County’s most beautiful landscapes—an incredible urban amenity whose economic benefits (direct and indirect) no one ever bothers to consider.
ReplyDeleteSolar works best on site, rooftop panels that service the building and feed into the grid. These solar farms are simply a way to keep utilities in corporate control and the public under their heel. If the city owned the panels and the farm, that would be a different story, but that's not what's happening here. This is another corporate pick pocket of the public.
DeleteAnother outrageous plan. It should be shot down. Why do we have a thoughtful Conservation Council if the City doesn't listen to it. We're going to be surrounded by low income development, 5g towers and solar fields where so little open space for fresh green air exists. Puleese. Maybe Linda was right 'Greenport is the donut - Hudson is the hole.'
ReplyDelete