The Stafford Town Board voted 5-0 to send a proposed moratorium on solar panel energy farms to the the town’s Planning Board for discussion on Monday night.
The six month moratorium will give the Town of Stafford time to study solar panel energy farms and what zoning laws will need to be put in place.
“There are companies I guess that are doing some informal surveying,” says Robert Clement, Stafford Town Supervisor.
“I don’t know that they have signed anybody, but we have no language on our books to deal with it, so that’s why we are instituting a moratorium and that stops anything while we get our act together as far as having a local law to deal with it.”
In May of 2016, the Town of Wheatfield enacted a moratorium on ground mounted solar panels and solar farms.
In November of 2016, the Town of Sweden also voted in a moratorium on the construction of solar power farms and commercial solar power projects.
According to Clement, Stafford’s proposed moratorium will affect large solar energy farms, not someone looking to put solar panels on their house.
After the Town Planning Board looks at the proposed moratorium it will be sent to the County Planning Board and then a public hearing will be scheduled.
The whole process should take about a few month says Clement.