HomeMy WebLinkAboutKCE BESS ZBA Comments 12-1-22 - Battery StorageDecember 1, 2022
TO: Zoning Board of Appeals
Southold Town, NY
RE: Comments on KCE BESS Project 1000-83-3-6.1
Dear Chair Leslie Weisman and Board Members,
I strongly support the proposed location for the BESS project as it is close to the landfill and
appropriately zoned industrial use. However, the Town has not yet developed a plan to
accommodate this essential utility in meeting climate change needs while preserving local
quality of life; this should be carefully considered and approved in a collaboration between your
ZBA and Planning, then seek final guidance from the Town Board. This first case should be
used as a model and studied after implementation as an experiment for final code language
that ensures the guidance meets both the needs of the neighboring community and the larger
Town at large.
For instance, the minimal landscaped buffer with non-native plants should be revised to a
robust 50’ buffer of native trees and shrubs outside the sound-buffering barrier on all sides,
with an interior buffer to account for a gate entry. While the view from Oregon Road has not
been designated a Scenic Byway, it has in effect become a beloved one. What was done to the
east of this property should be a learning experience for what not to do. The KCE land is large
enough to reconfigure the BESS containers into a formation that allows for robust buffering.
Wood lots are a natural feature of Southold and would be in character with Oregon Road’s
agricultural character.
Explore creating a concrete “bathtub” with a potato-barn-style roof. In Germany container
trucks filled with water and equipped with a crane roam the highways. They lift up burning
electric cars and submerge them as they are otherwise difficult to extinguish. Would this ensure
efficient fire suppression? Since there is to be no on-site emergency responders, would this
help local volunteer firefighters? Would it minimize damage to vistas? Could the above-ground
wires on towers be buried?
The ZBA will consider if: The use will be compatible with its surroundings and with the
character of the neighborhood and of the community in general, particularly with regard to
visibility, scale and overall appearance? In order to secure appropriate mitigations prior to
issuing any approval for variances, the details of the mitigations should be fully developed with
all parties that would be required to approve legislation informing BESS locations and
requirements. Unfortunately the guidance does not exist so part of this review process should
be to develop it.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Randy Wade
P.O. Box 5, Greenport, NY. 11944
vision4me@me.com