Ellery Councilman John Cresanti (left) and Councilman David Boughton (right) discussing the local law number seven at the Dec. 8 public hearing. Submitted photo

STOW – With the growing worries about wind and solar farm developments, many municipalities throughout the county have been looking into moratoriums on the matter.

The town of North Harmony is one of the most recent municipalities to have joined the efforts to enact regulations on wind and solar farms. At the town board meeting on Jan. 12, the town board members set a public hearing for local law number one for 2026, which would be titled the Solar Energy Law.

This law would be the first of the implemented laws within the town to restrict solar energy farms. The public hearing was scheduled for Jan. 26 at 6 p.m., with a special meeting set to occur right afterwards.

North Harmony board members have also expressed interest in implementing regulations on wind farms.

At the meeting on Dec. 8, 2025, town board members discussed the public hearing on wind farms that the town of Ellery had scheduled for the following day. At this meeting, Councilman David Boughton made a motion to adopt local law number seven for the town. This law, titled “a Local Law Establishing a six-month Moratorium on the Construction, Installation, and/or Permitting of Wind Farms in the Town of Ellery, County of Chautauqua and State of New York”. At this meeting, the law was unanimously adopted, allowing the six-month period to be used to research wind farms and implement proper laws and restrictions.

Members of the Ellery Town Board initially planned to vote on a similar moratorium for solar farms on this same night. However, due to wording that set the public hearing at the previous meeting this could not be done, according to Town Attorney Neil Robinson. Instead, the town board members set a public hearing for Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m. This public hearing was set to discuss the local law number one of 2026, which pertained to the moratorium of solar farms. This local law would extend a six-month moratorium to solar farms in the town, which was passed following the public hearing.

With moratoriums going into place, town officials will have more time to gauge public opinion, and implement regulations that reflect the wants and needs of residents.