SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — The town has fielded objections to a request by Family of Woodstock for a zoning change that would allow a solar array on agency’s Sawyer Kill Terrace property.
At a public hearing on the matter held last week, Saugerties resident Susan Weeks said the array would be a blight on the scenic value of the area.
“I have been for a walk … around the Sawyer Kill pond there, and it’s really beautiful,” she said. “There’s an old trail there, an old road, that … [some residents believe] has been here for 400 years. It’s a really beautiful recreational area, and I’d hate to see it be nothing but solar panels.”
Under the proposed land-use revision, ground-mounted solar arrays larger than 4,000 square feet would be allowed in the town’s Recreational Business District, where Family owns parcels of 125.8 and 3.6 acres. The larger parcel is used by HITS for horse barns and showcase arenas.
Weeks said solar panels instead could be installed atop the existing structures used by HITS.
“A solar array is not a solar farm. It is a power generation plant,” she said. “It belongs in places that can’t be used for recreation. … Every single one of the HITS housing [and] HITS barns should have solar arrays on top of them.”
Town resident Mark Knaust agreed that the largely undeveloped area in the Recreational Business District should be protected.
“The land along the Sawyer Kill has a long and documented history of being among the most productive agricultural land in the area,” he said. “It has been noted for its fertile soil from prehistory to the present.”
Family Executive Director Michael Berg said the agency would preserve the trail for public use but that the solar array is needed to offset the cost of electricity for organization’s 10 facilities in Ulster County.
“We’ve already put solar on our New Paltz office, our Ellenville office and an apartment house that we own in Kingston,” Berg said. “This is part of a bigger plan to be able to generate enough solar energy to offset the entire agency usage. … Probably 40 or 50 percent of it will be done by the solar array.”
The public hearing will resume at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6, in the Frank Greco Senior Center, 207 Market St., Saugerties.
