BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – The consensus of both the town and village boards is that the proposed 240-megawatt solar center on the Rich Road in the Town of Canton may be a done deal with the only recourse being a costly challenge in New York State Supreme Court that according to legal counsel would be difficult to win.

The Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) ruling on the EDF Renewables project was discussed at Wednesday’s joint meeting.

“The only choice we have is to take them to the state Supreme Court with all the costs on local taxpayers,” stated Deputy Town Clerk James T. Smith.

Mayor Michael Dalton said the village’s main concern centered around fire protection and an adequate water supply to fight a fire if needed.

“I don’t know if we'll have an opportunity to negotiate with EDF about these issues,” he said. “It’s not looking good. It’s all stacked against us.”

At the June 20 village board meeting, Deputy Mayor Anna Sorensen expressed her displeasure with the ruling.

“It really blew me away how it was swept away. It completely dismisses the community,” she remarked.

William Buchan, the solar attorney for both the town and village, provided his thoughts about the ruling  and the status of the Rich Road project via an email.

“ORES staff and EDF counsel filed briefs arguing that neither the Town or Village raised "substantive and significant" issues requiring adjudication. Adjudication in this context is an administrative hearing before ORES Administrative Law Judges [ALJs] to resolve disputed issues,” wrote Buchan.

“The ORES ALJ's have a 30 day period (ending June 13) to issue a ruling granting a hearing on the substantive and significant issues raised by the Town and/or Village and scheduling an adjudicatory hearing. No ruling by the ALJ's declaring issues raised by the Town and Village meet the substantive and significant threshold was issued before the June 13 deadline, therefore none of the issues raised by the Town and/or Village will proceed further in the ORES permitting process,” he continued.

Buchan said the next steps in the process were the negotiation and filing of stipulations between ORES Staff and EDF to resolve any remaining issues. The Stipulation was filed on June 19 and a final siting permit will be issued by ORES within the next 60 days.

“After the final permit is issued, the Town and Village will have a 4 month period to bring a challenge in New York Supreme Court St. Lawrence County, to the issuance of a final siting permit under Article 78 of the NY CPLR. To prevail in such a case, Canton must allege and prove that ORES acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the siting permit. As we have discussed, such a lawsuit would be difficult to win and would be paid for entirely with Town and/or Village taxpayer funds,” said Buchan.

He noted that the Town Solar Committee is continuing to meet with EDF to negotiate a Host Community Benefit Agreement and/or PILOT Agreement and those discussions appear to be productive.