Cambria has exhausted Bear Ridge Solar intervenor funds

Ben Joe, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read

Jan. 3—The Town of Cambria has been actively challenging the development of the up-to-100-megawatt Bear Ridge Solar project since 2018, incurring approximately $99,000 in legal and engineering fees.

The town has had some help covering the tab. Since 2018, when Cypress Creek Renewables first proposed establishing the utility over 780 acres in Cambria and Pendleton, the Town of Cambria has received a total of $68,500 in intervenor funding from the state, according to documents obtained through Freedom of Information law.

In 2018, the project was under Article 10 siting rules, and the Cambria Town Board authorized the hiring of Dennis Vacco, former state attorney general, and Wendel Engineering, to represent the town on siting matters. According to former supervisor Wright Ellis, a main issue for the town has been the protection of "tillable" farmland.

Vacco, who works for Lippes Mathias Wexley Friedman LLP, has extensive experience representing municipal interests in utility siting matters, including the towns of Somerset and Yates when they opposed an industrial wind energy installation.

The town filed its first application for intervenor funding in late 2018, seeking $35,000 to pay for Vacco's and Wendel's services. It was awarded $17,500.

The application for the funds said, "The town's involvement is necessary to ensure that the project complies with the town's zoning, planning and other local laws," as well as to "protect its residents from potential impacts that could result from the project."

In 2020, the state utility siting process changed, from Article X to another process commonly known as 94-c, and the town sought additional intervenor funding of $60,000, from the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, to cover engineering and legal fees. The town was granted $51,000 in January 2022.

In total, the Town of Cambria has paid Lippes Mathias Wexley Friedman LLP approximately $88,000 for its work on the Bear Ridge Solar case since 2018.

Also in January 2022, the town agreed to Wendel Engineering's "scope of work" proposal, up to $25,500 to be paid for work including reviewing grading, drainage, screening and buffering, as well as information concerning decommissioning of solar arrays. As of December, Wendel had been paid approximately $11,400 for services rendered.

Supervisor Jon MacSwan said Vacco and Wendel remain at work for the town as it and Cypress Creek Renewables both appeal the terms of the final siting permit issued by ORES.

Last summer, the town succeeded in getting 120 acres of the original 900-acre Bear Ridge Solar footprint, on the north side of Lockport Road between Comstock Road and Campbell Boulevard, marked off limits in the final siting permit, on the basis that the acreage is a town-designated Planned Unit Development area where solar energy generation is expressly prohibited. That took 12 megawatts out of play, but ORES executive director Houtan Moaveni advised Cypress Creek Renewables it could try to get its permit modified to reach 100 megawatts.