Dan Handy is retired from dairy farming, drives a school bus and just finished a seven-year stint on the Marilla Planning Board.
The lifelong town resident is also in the middle of a controversy over solar arrays in the rural municipality of 5,100, where there have been two moratoriums placed on solar projects.
Renewable Properties, a California renewable energy firm, leases about 24 acres of land Handy owns on Bullis Road for a solar array. The company has applied for two more similar solar projects, one on Two Rod Road and another on a parcel he owns on Stolle Road.
Town officials have been concerned that solar arrays are being erected on valuable farmland. The Town Board on Thursday unanimously approved a new law governing solar energy systems.
The two proposed projects can go forward – they were grandfathered in under the old law because they were already proposed – but need to abide by more requirements for approval, town Supervisor Earl “Skip” Gingerich said.
They would not be allowed under the new law, Gingerich added.
“We didn’t realize what the impact was until one of them went in,” he said. “The two biggest areas we identified are visual and impact on viable agricultural land.”
Now in his mid-70s and thinking about retirement, Handy looks forward to annual payments from solar projects on his property.
A farm in Bavaria is covering its hops with solar panels, providing electricity to 250 households…
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