By Peter Calvert
Planning Board Meeting, August 10 Planning Board: Bill Palmer, Chair, Cyndi Wright, Frank Winkler, Greg Evans. (Joanne Callahan, present on Zoom) (Cricket Keys, Eric Van Benschoten, excused). Support Staff: JoAnn Boerner, Clerk, Kristin Schneider, DelCo Liaison.
In 2001, the Board passed a law to restrict the large-scale building of Cell Towers in Andes. At the recent July 2026 Town Board meeting, the restriction by Town Law on building a cell tower through Communications Tower Law, Town Law #1 of 2001, was amended by the Board to allow building of a Cell Tower to go forward.
The Planning Board was asked by the cell tower construction company to allow their Facilities Siting Permit and, further, to waive the requirements to meet the standard levels of building structure for a private access road through Dirty Girl Farm acreage to get equipment trucks to their construction site above New Cemetery Road. Planning Board Member Cyndi Wright, co-owner of Dirty Girl Farm, recused herself from the discussion and votes. Dirty Girl Farm is in concordance with the private road access. After detailed discussion by the eligible Planning Board members, the waiver was granted, pending a Public Hearing September 14 at the next Planning Board Meeting.
An additional request was for a variance to the tower height restrictions and property line setback requirements. The Planning Board cannot grant this variance, and it was referred to the August 2026 meeting of the Andes Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). If approved by the ZBA, they would call for a Public Hearing on Sept 14th.
The Planning Board also discussed solar field regulations around the county and the state and how large-scale battery storage centers are or are not regulated by local communities.
Certain commercial solar fields have been able to incorporate sheep or beef cow farming by raising the height of the support poles on the solar panels, approximately 5 feet for ovines and 10 feet for bovines. Sheep are more amenable amongst solar fields, even enjoying the shade provided, but sheep production can reach a limit of market need. However, beef cows need advanced sensor collars on their necks paired to let the solar panels know substantial poundage is arriving and bumping the supports below the rapture of their sun energy capture. The panels are then programmed to go full Tom Cruise MI:1 mode and level themselves horizontally until the grazing is done.
Eventually decommission of projects (i.e. who takes responsibility and shoulders the cost of decommission) was mentioned as an issue. Upfront and ongoing monetary compensation for local towns and communities hosting energy centers was investigated as well. These projects are constructed in rural locations, yet do not add any energy or savings to those communities. Rather they are set up to export all the generated energy.
The Planning Board will continue researching what strategies have worked in other communities. Updating zoning regulations for the Hamlet and Town continues to be addressed by the Planning Board and Kristin Schneider, their DelCO advisor.~