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Common Council Meeting with Committee of the Whole Meeting February 4th, 2026

6 matches · 2 unidentified

Unidentified speaker 1:28:36

I believe it ends on the 25th. So, um, again, I think Brian sent it everything to Planning Board, so Planning Board meets prior to the 25th. So as long as you call for the meeting on the 20— or excuse me, before the 25th, Planning Board will meet. But as long as you call for your meeting on the 25th and vote on it, you should be good. I guess if worst case happens, I can prepare an extension of the moratorium for another month just to allow for the, uh, um, or to, you know, pass.

1:22:02

I can, please, between Stephanie and I, we Certainly. There was a mor— the Council may remember that there was— this body passed a moratorium almost 6 months ago. That was a 6-month moratorium which is up within the next couple weeks. So this piece and the next piece which addresses better battery storage was in response to those two moratoriums. As far as billboards, this— the moratorium was requested because we had— our office had seen an uptick in the number of requests for zoning approvals and Planning Board approvals for additional billboards within the city, including one on the triangular site at the western gateway of Oriskany Boulevard into the city, which the Zoning Board actually granted approval for. But fortunately, DOT thought better of it and actually denied it, or we would have had a big billboard on that site. I'm suggesting that there be no more billboards allowed in the city, and that that would basically prevent any reviews by Planning Board, and that only existing billboards be permitted to remain.

1:48:11

Well, this is a different one. I'll read Resolution providing for public hearing on a zoning amendment, whereas the city, uh, the Utica Common Council proposes amendment to the zoning board prohibiting billboards, whereas proposed amendment were referred to the Planning Board on February 4th, 2026 for a report thereon, whereas the City of Utica zoning ordinance requires that before any amendment supplement or change in the text, there should be a public hearing notice. Whereas the City Clerk shall cause to be published a public hearing notice at least 2 times, not less than 10 days before the public hearing. Now there be resolved that the Utica Common Council shall conduct a public hearing on the proposed amendment at its regular meeting on February 25th at 2026 at 7 2 PM in the Common Council chambers. All right, so these are going to go into the public hearing.

Unidentified speaker 1:37:05

Yeah. And, and to be clear, there are, you know, much like other, you know, wind, solar, you know, there are a lot of concerns with, you know, having these systems in place. Um, again, we just said, um, you know, you can't put it out with, you know, regular, you know, water. So the fire department has to figure out, you know, how to handle that. And they're— so the last piece of legislation that I sent down is the actual regulations, um, which would require again, the special use permit, and there are specific things that the applicant would need to provide. A lot of those include, you know, providing, um, not just information about, you know, how it's going to look, but, you know, noise regulations, um, you know, their safety information, and providing that to the fire department, police department, codes, um, you know, inspections, site access. You know, there's a lot of different regulations for them. That they not only have to apply when they do their site plan approval as part of their special use, but as an ongoing, you know, changes in ownership has to be shared. So there's a lot of things that govern that. Again, we're not asking for the Council to act on this tonight. You can't, it has to go to a public hearing. And I know that I just sent this down today, 'cause I was waiting for clarification that we could get it on the calendar for Planning Board. But take a look at it, we can answer more questions. It is very detailed. Again, I took, you know, the model system from, you know, New York State as to what they recommend for their regulations. I tailored it ever so slightly to fit the City of Utica specifically. Um, but, um, you know, review it, and then if you have specific questions, I know one of the things I talked about with fire, um, and urban, um, was adding a, um, you know, distance from any residential uses, um, between the structures to prevent any fires. Um, so fire is still weighing in on, on the distance that should be between them.

1:52:55

It would be the Planning Board that issues the special use permits.

3:06:40

Yep, resolution providing for public on a zoning amendment, whereas the Utica Common Council proposed amendments to the zoning code concerning the battery energy storage systems within the city, whereas the proposed amendments were referred to the Planning Board on February 4th, 2026, for a report thereon, whereas the City of Utica zoning ordinance requires that before any amendment, supplement, or change in the text, there should be a public notice and hearing Whereas the City Clerk's Office should cause to be published a public hearing notice at least 2 times, not less than 10 days before the public hearing. Now therefore be it resolved that the Utica Common Council should conduct the public hearing on the proposed amendment at its regular meeting on February 25th, 2026, at 7 PM in the County Council Chambers, One Kennedy Plaza, Utica, New York, to provide the public with an opportunity to question and offer comments on the proposed zoning text amendment. Immediately after the public hearing, the Utica Common Council may consider legislation that will amend the zoning ordinance to allow battery energy storage systems within the city.