Webster ZBA revisits the solar farm appeal, and a timeliness question could end it
The citizen appeal of the Webster Solar Garden's permit classification is back before the Zoning Board of Appeals, which may first decide whether it was filed in time.
A resident appeal challenging how the town classified the Webster Solar Garden project returns to the Webster Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday, July 14, and the board may decide a procedural question that could end the appeal before it reaches the central dispute.
The appeal was tabled June 9 and is the headline item on a lighter July agenda. It targets a classification decision that determined the solar project should be reviewed by the Town Board as an industrial use rather than under the town's Solar Energy Law, which would have required a special use permit. The five appellants, residents from the Grand Meadows Way and Pine Lakes Trail neighborhoods that abut the site, want the ZBA to reverse that determination and rule that the project falls under the Solar Law.
Before the board can weigh that question, it may have to settle a procedural one: whether the appeal was even filed on time. New York Town Law gives 60 days from an administrative determination to appeal it. At the June 9 meeting, the board's counsel, John DeMarco of DeMarco Taylor Law Group, pointed to two possible dates for when that clock started: a July 2025 Town Board resolution that referenced the industrial-use determination, and an April 1, 2026 email from Josh Artuso, the town's Director of Community Development, notifying board members and the public. The appellants contend the April email was the first public notice. DeMarco countered that the 2025 resolution was posted on the town website. If the board decides the earlier date controls, it could dismiss the appeal as untimely without ever ruling on the industrial-versus-solar question.
If the appellants prevail on the merits instead, the determination would be reversed and the project would face review under the Solar Law's special use permit pathway, which carries different standards. A separate Article 78 lawsuit challenging the Town Board's approval is proceeding in court. DeMarco told the board in June that the ZBA's decision and the lawsuit would not affect each other.
The board tabled the appeal June 9 after members said they had not had time to review materials handed to them shortly before that meeting, and asked that any new documentation arrive at least a week in advance. Whether the appellants met that request is one thing to watch Tuesday.
The Webster Solar Garden, developed by Montante Solar in partnership with Xerox on roughly 19 acres of the former Xerox campus, received an Industrial Use Permit from the Town Board on a 3-2 vote April 2. The Planning Board approved the final site plan in January.
Waterview Phase 3 returns after being tabled June 9
The board is also set to return to Waterview Apartments Phase 3, a 56-unit expansion tabled from June 9. Legacy Development Co. wants to build six buildings and a community center at the northwest corner of Willow Point Way and Nautical Mile Drive, in the Medium High Residential district, and needs two area variances to do it: a front setback of 18.7 feet where 75 feet is required, and a 38.5-foot buffer from the adjacent single-family neighborhood where 100 feet is required. The chair tabled the application before any testimony in June. Whether it is heard Tuesday or tabled again is an open question.
Three routine residential variances
Three new residential items round out the agenda. One resident is seeking a rear setback of 42.4 feet where 50 feet is required for a 1,080-square-foot addition on Millcreek Run. Another resident is asking to place a 6-foot privacy fence in the front yard of a corner lot on Bright Stream Way, and a third resident is seeking to place a 200-square-foot utility shed in the front yard of a corner lot on Somerdale Drive. Corner lots have two street-facing front yards, and owners often need relief to build along a side frontage that functions as a back yard. The board is also scheduled to approve the minutes of its June 9 meeting.
How to attend
The ZBA meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 14, in the Town Board Meeting Room at Webster Town Hall, 1002 Ridge Road. Members of the public may speak during the public hearing portion of the meeting. The full agenda is posted at websterny.gov.
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