Solar array online but lacks town certificate

Supervisor Paul Landi said Central Hudson allowed the connection after the town approved revisions to the project’s site plan.

The Cypress Creek Renewables solar array off Halihan Hill Road has gone online despite not having a certificate of occupancy from the town.

Town Supervisor Paul Landi said this week that Central Hudson Gas &

Electric Corp. allowed the connection after the town approved revisions to the project’s site plan in July.

“They’re into the grid,” he said.

“I called Central Hudson and told them, straight, up I haven’t given a CO yet,” Landi said. “They said, ‘Well, we can’t stop them.’ That’s what I was told.”

A Central Hudson spokesperson was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

Cypress Creek applied in 2017 to create a 2-megawatt solar power system on 13 acres of a 49acre property off of Halihan Hill Road in the town of Kingston. The town granted the project site plan approval but later rescinded it after nearby properties were plagued by drainage problems after work was largely completed last year.

During a public hearing this past June, before the revised site plan was approved, some neighbors said they were satisfied the drainage problem had been resolved, though others said their properties continued to be impacted by changes at the project site.

Landi said he expected Cypress Creek officials to speak privately with at least three property owners who had problems, but that those conversations have not occurred.

“They still haven’t talked to the neighbors, yet,” he said. “I want these residents taken care of, and I want [Cypress Creek] to keep their promises.”

Landi also said Ulster County still is seeking to have Cypress Creek correct problems so water does not flow onto Halihan Road and instead goes over a cliff and into a ditch on Sawkill Road that drains into the Sawkill Creek.