Southtowns Record

Minutes(April 28th Special Mtg.)

Government
Town of Concord
Board
Town Board
Meeting
Apr 28, 2026
Kind
Minutes
Topics
Zoning and land use, Energy and data center siting, Moratoriums, Roads and traffic

Original document

Text · page 3 of 5

Page 47
  April 28, 2026

6.  Decommissioning bond must be submitted to the Town Board and Town Attorney for
  approval prior to issuance of the Building Permit.
7.  Decommissioning bond must be obtained for Project with a minimum value of
  $517,500. The Decommissioning bond is to be reviewed and renewed every five
  years. Any change in Project owner or operator must be reflected in the
  documentation for the decommissioning bond.
8.  If the owner or operator of the Project changes, the successor owner or operator shall
  notify the Town Code Enforcement Officer of such change in ownership or operator
  within 30 days of the change and shall provide updated contact information in
  providing such notice.
9.  The Project shall comply with the requirements of the current Town of Concord Solar
  Energy Systems local law contained in Chapter 150, Article XXXIX of the Town
  Code, also being Town of Concord Local Law Number 1 of 2021.

  Supervisor Drozd asked Town Engineer Caleb Henning if he had anything add, and he
  said that it has been a lot of work getting to this point, and he is available to answer any
  questions that the Board may have. Mr. Henning also wanted to point out that the project
  has been reduced in size-during the environmental review there was no reduction to the
  size of the project. After the review was completed, the applicant submitted a revised
  application which showed a significant reduction in the acreage affected by the project.
  It was a little over ten acres difference.

  Supervisor Drozd wanted to make a personal statement prior to the Board vote:
  “My personal view on this probably could be summed up by the movie The Witches of
  Eastwick from 1987, when Cher and Jack Nicolson had words. Direct and honest as
  possible. That is how I feel about this project. I personally am not in favor of this
  project. The sad thing is that I have an obligation to uphold the laws of New York State,
  however crazy they may be. The problem is not with local officials of any municipality.
  It is at the top. We have officials in Albany spewing unrealistic goals, if you will.
  Change will only come when common sense is restored at the top. There are some areas
  right now in Eric County that have projects going up that I do agree with. There is a
  project of battery energy storage at Tonawanda Coke. Everybody knows what is
  underneath that ground at Tonawanda Coke. It is worthless, vacant land-there is garbage
  in there and all kinds arsenic in there. That is where these projects should be. There is
  another spot between two train tracks in the Tonawanda area. It is land that nobody will
  ever buy and nobody will ever build on, and nobody would ever see it. That is where it
  belongs. There is another one over in Genesee County, just past GCC on the Thruway. It
  is right next to the Thruway. Nobody can see it and it doesn’t hurt anybody. It is under
  usable, undesirable land that is worthless-that is where these arrays belong in my personal
  opinion, and shame on Erie County Environment and Planning for not taking a harder
  stance on farmland. Again, we have to uphold laws that anyone with common sense
  would consider garbage, and again this application came in before our moratorium. A
  new, tighter law is coming.”

  Council Member Drake made the following statement:
  “I would just like to say that in 2017 this Town did not have a solar law, and I co-
  authored the first law, along with Wendel’s, which is a highly respected engineering firm,
  and believe it or not New York State. At that point they were pretty much against it. We
  were warned at the time not to make the law too restrictive where if it went to court the
  whole law would get thrown out. So, we did the first law based on the situation that was
  going on then. When I was Supervisor, we tightened that law up twice, as far as setbacks
  and things like that. But this has been a moving target, and unfortunately, we have other
  things that were going on and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. These people
  have satisfied what the law requires. Again, we take an oath to uphold the laws and the
  code of the Town, and to do otherwise would be violating our oath.

  Council Member Krzemien added her statement:
  “I would just like to say that this project has been a tremendous amount of time and
  effort, from the Town Supervisor, my colleagues on the Board, our Town Clerk, Brian