Town resident Karen Engstrom speaks at the Chautauqua Town Board meeting. P-J photo by Gregory Bacon

There are no wind, solar or battery storage systems in the town of Chautauqua. Officials are keeping it that way for at least another year.

During the Chautauqua Town Board meeting, officials passed a year-long moratorium on wind energy facilities, Battery Energy Storage Systems and commercial solar energy facilities.

The town had previously had moratoriums in place. The local laws will extend the moratoriums for another year.

The town of Chautauqua and the village of Mayville recently created a joint comprehensive plan. The two municipalities are now separately updating their zoning codes.

Officials said they wanted the moratoriums in place until the new zoning laws are completed.

Town resident Karen Engstrom spoke at all three public hearings.

Engstrom said she appreciated the moratoriums, but noted they are only temporary. “The hard part is yet to come and that is writing of the laws,” she said.

For wind energy, Engstrom said she wants to see large setbacks from wind turbines to people’s homes. “There are adverse human health effects,” she said.

Engstrom noted that the town of Pomfret has large setbacks in its regulations and recommended Chautauqua town officials look at that law.

Councilman Scott Cummings thanked her for her comments.

“We’ll make sure this information gets to the committee that’s working on the zoning updates,” he said.

For Battery Energy Storage Systems, Engstrom questioned its safety. She said some towns in the state ban them altogether, including the town of Sheridan.

Cummings also has questions about their safety.

“I personally don’t think these Battery Energy Storage Systems are perfected yet. They’re fairly new technology. It hasn’t been out there long enough. There’s going to be changes,” he said.

For commercial solar, Engstrom said Niagara County requires that all components must be recycled.

She also questioned how long they last, compared to how much energy is required to construct them.

While there are no wind or Battery Energy Solar Systems proposed for the town, the town board did approve one solar project back in 2022, but the company did not move forward with the project. It appears the company has gone bankrupt.

There were a couple of others, however the town board had issued a positive declaration for a State Environmental Quality Review, which required more environmental studies. Since those positive declarations, the developers did not return.