MONTICELLO, NY — At a meeting at the government center on February 4, Colleen Monaghan, executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) said her organization had received hundreds of inquires from people seeking information about solar leases. Many landowners had received lease proposals in the mail, but were not sure if they represented a good deal.

CCE put together presentations observed by members of the community over two days. Monaghan said, “We managed to get a lot of people in the room and explain the difference between solar arrays and solar farms, and the tax implications of solar farms.” She said, “Solar arrays are typically considered farm equipment if you’re talking about farm land. That could be panels on a roof top, [which] don’t have much in the way of tax implications. Once you transition into a solar farm, you’re talking about a commercial land use,” and the tax implications could be significant.

She said they were able to secure one of the leases from a local homeowner. Attorney Steve Mogel—a CCE board member—was able to go over it point by point and explain some of the possible drawbacks of the leases.

Carol Roig, a member of Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development (SASD), who writes a monthly column for this newspaper, also took part in the presentation. She said that, as she understands it, a company called Cypress Creek mailed some 6,500 letters to Sullivan County landowners with more than 18 acres. If residents indicated they wanted to hear more, they were sent a generic lease and asked to sign it. The solar farms being discussed would have generated up to two megawatts of electricity, many times more than the amount needed for a single-family dwelling.

Monaghan said, “We explained to well over 300 people we had over the two days, as well as 100 people on a waiting list: contract law 101 when you go to court, the judge is not interested in what’s fair, the judge is interested in the contract that both parties signed. So I think the take-away was, before you sign any kind of lease—whether it’s a land lease, or you’re renting an apartment or whatever—you probably want to seek some counsel and see that your interests as a consumer are covered.”

The leases in many cases could have limited what the property owners could do on the portion of the property that was not being used as part of the solar farm. For instance, if a barn existed and cast a shadow on a spot where the leaseholder wanted to put part of its solar farm, the leaseholder would have the right, under the lease that was examined, to take down the barn.

Legislator Joe Perrello said that he attended the meeting because, as a landowner, he had received a lease and wanted more information about it. He said the session changed his outlook about solar farms because, “They come across as you’re going to make a lot of money, but there could be a lot of problems along the way.”

Legislator Terri Ward said that she had attended a recent Town of Callicoon meeting, and the town has no zoning regarding solar farms. She suggested the towns could work together in creating zoning regarding solar.

Legislator Catherine Owens noted that the Town of Crawford in Orange County had passed a moratorium regarding the installation of solar farms, and noted that the process involved a lot of clear cutting of trees.

Monaghan said, “Everybody is for solar: The Extension, SASD and everybody is for solar and smart energy. Throwing out the mass leases was probably a little presumptuous.”

For more information regarding solar farm leases, contact CCE at sullivan@cornell.edu or call 845/292-6180. For more information on individual home solar systems, contact SASD at sasdonline@gmail.com or call 845/701-9126.