By DAVID PENNETTA //
Land-use moratoriums are here to stay – but how they work can use a refresher.
Moratoriums are a temporary prohibition of an activity. The intention of a municipal moratorium is to allow time for careful evaluation and decision-making, to ensure a community’s long-term well-being and sustainability. Planning, zoning, infrastructure, environmental issues and public health and safety must all be considered with each new application.
When a new methodology is presented, municipal officials must be up to speed to properly evaluate an application and ultimately approve or deny it. A moratorium allows time for the necessary research.
That makes a lot of sense. But moratoriums have a negative side. For instance, they can hold up the adoption of new or lesser-known technologies, resulting in longer delays and more costly processes overall.
While ample time to learn about something new is important, many moratoriums create a disproportionate amount of downtime – and the costs created by that downtime are often passed down to residents.
David Pennetta: A moratorium on moratoriums?
“Green” initiatives like solar and wind power (and especially battery storage) are prime examples. Federal and state governments are racing to get this country off the gas, coal and oil standard and on to green energy, but local land-use issues create enormous hurdles, slowing progress and driving up those costs.
Local governments accomplish a lot on restricted budgets by utilizing older research and support infrastructures. The private market knows it’s often asking municipalities to pass judgement on technologies and land uses that don’t fall under the usual benchmarks, increasing the likelihood of rejection.
It’s time for developers – in conjunction with local universities, regional planning boards and state officials – to start identifying “best practices” for each new technology.
Solar energy has been with us for many decades and is well understood. But consider wind power, which is still finding its legs. Back in 2016, the Long Island business community – along with Suffolk County government – created a Building Code for Wind Power that could be adopted in part or whole by individual towns.
Now we’re being asked to consider battery-based energy-storage developments, and the possibility of a moratorium is being bantered around again.
Feeding the fears have been high-profile electrical-vehicle fires and battery-storage development fires, which require different processes and applications to control and extinguish.
Some might argue that green energy is moving too quickly and we need those moratoriums to slow things down. Wind farms may be rising fast off Long Island’s shores, but some people aren’t even fully comfortable with wind power yet, let alone lithium-ion batteries; others assume solar and wind are enough, and we don’t need batteries.
This lack of proper education is partially the fault of developers, who should pool resources to educate residents on how batteries fit into the power grid. Our state and federal governments are setting green standards we won’t be able to meet unless we can fast-track, with good conscience, the adoption of new technologies.
Fortunately, business organizations are indeed joining with local planning commissions, electrical unions, builders and the New York State Energy and Development Authority to prepare a safe and reliable building code for the development of battery energy-storage facilities.
Moratoriums will always be a failsafe, should land-use jurisdictions feel unprepared to evaluate a new development concept. But with more foresight by developers, regional planners can shorten the learning curve and foster more collective understanding.
And if everyone understands the same set of facts, objections – and support – will be more closely correlated among all involved parties.
David Pennetta is executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield’s Long Island office and co-president of the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island.
