UPDATE: Correction, The next Town of Amity Board meeting is Monday December 9 at 7pm
Local business leader raises red flags over the Genesee River Valley
By Andrew Harris, pictured is East Wind Nursery in Amity NY
Lisa Clark-Shay has been in business on her four and a half acres since 2001. East Wind Nursery has been essential for many, a place of joy for every season, and creating job opportunities for many over the years. Lisa has paid her dues, paid her mortgage, her taxes, and donated back to the community year after year.
When she learned that a Georgia based solar farm developer had begun the process of converting all the land around her business into a solar farm her heart sank. Shay is concerned for her community, the farm land and the impact on her business, recently photographed:
The proposal pictured above converts all of the existing farmland which borders her small business located on Route 19 in Amity NY into a solar farm. A property just south of her business has already made a deal to convert riverbottom farmland and commercial property into a solar farm. That project has already been approved by the Town of Amity.
“I’m not against solar or wind or other green energy. But in a county full of open spaces, to place them surrounding a small business, along the river, and on productive farmland is devastating to me and future crop production,” said Shay.
For Shay, this isn’t a case of “not in my backyard,” this is more like ‘not in my river valley.’
Shay immediately took her concerns to last week’s Amity Town Planning Board Meeting, where the developer from SOLAMERICA ENERGY, LLC based in Atlanta Georgia came to get a final blessing and begin construction in early 2025.
The meeting featured an expert from MRB group, hired by the town of Amity to help navigate the process of solar energy development. Matthew Sousa is very familiar with the Town of Amity planning board process after advising on the project to the south of East Wind Nursery.
In an odd twist the meeting was revelatory because the developer had traveled to Amity only to realize that the basic application for the project in question had never been filed. That application is necessary to start the process which includes the New York State Environmental Quality Review, aka SEQR.
The Town of Amity planning board members and Shay wondered if this was the end of the proposed solar project after representatives from SOLAMERICA ENERGY indicated that the delay was a serious blow to the intended construction timeline.
That moment of hope for Shay and others opposed to the project has been short-lived. SOLAMERICA ENERGY LLC filed the application to the Town of Amity this week as confirmed by the MRB group. That application must be accepted by the Town of Amity and the environmental review process will begin. The final decision on this project will rest with the Town of Amity Board after being advised by MRB Group, town, and county planning boards.
Lisa Shay is ready to fight this development with “heart and soul, or nail and hammer.”
For her, surrounding East Wind Nursery with a solar farm isn’t just hard to look at, but decreases the value of the business she has put blood, sweat, and tears into.
Selling a garden center, a nursery, a family agri-business surrounded by farmland is one thing. Surrounding it by solar panels means a less marketable business. Shay feels this project would greatly decrease the value of the business, ruin the landscape, and desecrate the farm land:
“Why are we lining the Genesee River valley with solar panels? Do we plan to turn all the prime cropland and riverbanks into solar farms from Houghton to Willing? This is our greatest resource, this river valley, and we can’t stop that?”
New York State has limits on the amount of farmland that can be converted into solar or wind energy.
The proposed project, and the out-of-state developer, raise some serious questions from Shay and others knowledgeable about this project
Why are these companies attempting to develop with such apparent haste and lack of local knowledge?
What protections to the river valley, that prime cropland, and our shared resource are in place?
How can we expand local control over a process largely controlled by the state as these projects continue ?
The Genesee River is Allegany County’s most important natural asset. The community’s very existence and future are directly tied to this river which runs from Gold, Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario.
The land surrounding this river, the river bottom, is some of the most fertile ground on the planet. It has been farmed for a thousand years, and nourished humans for even longer.
Lisa wants to keep Allegany County’s river bottom from becoming one big solar farm.
“We have to set boundaries and we have to protect existing businesses and we have to protect fertile soil. Solar farms like this should be placed on non-productive land, rooftops, and they should never threaten a small family business like East Wind Landscape Nursery”
Allegany County legislator representing that district, Gretchen Hanchett is equally concerned about the impact on the small business, the farmland, and the community as a whole. Hanchett explains her initial thoughts on the dilemma:
“This is a very difficult issue not just for this small business but public policy moving forward. Local government must balance the interests of the property owners on both sides. Impacting farmland is one thing, impacting a successful small business and the community is another.”
CORRECTION: The next regular meeting of the Town of Amity is set for Monday December 9 at 7pm at the town hall:
1 Schuyler Street, Belmont, NY 14813
585-268-5423
Fax: 585-268-5436
E-Mail: townofamity@verizon.net
