The Stafford Town Board voted 4-0 to extend a solar farm moratorium at it’s regular Town Board meeting on December 11, 2017.
The moratorium will continue prohibit solar farms and solar power plants from being constructed in the Town of Stafford while the subject is studied and looked into by a Solar Committee.
The five page moratorium will prevent solar companies from submitting applications for a permit to construct, establish use or operation of any land, body of water, building or other structure within the Town of Stafford for a solar farm or solar power plant.
The Board was going to extend the moratorium for three months, but the head of the Solar Study Committee, Sandra Swanson, requested another month as there will be several more open meetings on the topic and then the committee will move on to actually studying which is the hardest part, says Swanson.
Councilman Robert Mattice then requested the moratorium be extended by 6 months instead of 3.
“I think we should make it 6 months to be safe,” says Mattice.
“I think that is realistic,” said Robert Clement, Stafford Town Supervisor.
“After the first of the year there will be a full court press on the committee meetings,” says Swanson.
“I still want to keep to my goal.”
A public hearing on the extension is scheduled for January 8, 2017 at 7:15p.m.at Stafford Town Hall.
The Board then passed a motion, 4-0, to refer it to the County Planning Department.