Marsh Sanctuary and nearby homeowners claim that the Village of Mount Kisco has illegally spot zoned a parcel to allow construction of a massive solar power plant.
The sanctuary, six homeowners and Mount Kisco Chase Homeowners Association asked Westchester Supreme Court to nullify a new Solar Law that would allow the power plant to be built, in a complaint filed on June 10.
“The permitted solar power plant will harm property values,” the complaint states, and “the rural and wooded character of the surrounding community.”
The dispute concerns a 23.5-acre parcel at 180 South Bedford Road near Sarles Street.
John R. Bainlardi, a developer who served as vice chairman of the village’s planning board, sold the property to Skull Island Partners for $1.5 million in 2013. Skull Island has purportedly leased the land to Sunrise Community Solar, operated by Doug Hertz, the former chairman of the village planning board.
Bainlardi and Hertz are not named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Skull Island’s 23.5-acre parcel is in a conservation district that includes the 156-acre Marsh Sanctuary and 86 homes.
Sunrise Community Solar has asked the village for a special permit to build a solar power plant on the property, according to the complaint
The special permit is a product of the Solar Law. In 2018 the village began considering zoning regulations that would allow solar panels. The original proposal, according to the complaint, did not allow large, ground-mounted arrays in a conservation district.
But at the last minute in the process, the complaint states, village staff told the planning board that someone, who has not been identified, had asked for an exception allowing for a solar power plant on the Skull Island parcel.
The village crafted restrictions that excluded every other parcel in the conservation district, in effect, the complaint states, creating illegal spot zoning for the benefit of one property owner and lessee.
The village board of trustees enacted the Solar Law in 2018.
If the solar power plant is built, according to the complaint, nearly 700 trees would be removed, the habitats of turtles and eagles and other wildlife would be destroyed, and polluted stormwater runoff would threaten nearby homes.
The sanctuary and neighbors are asking the court to nullify the Solar Law and bar the village from granting a special use permit for the proposed solar power plant.
Mayor J. Michael Cindrich, village manager Edward W. Brancati and planning board secretary Michelle Russo did not reply to an email asking for their sides of the story.
