Babylon officials consider regulating solar carport construction

The Town of Babylon is proposing a new law to regulate the construction of solar carports in the wake of several businesses asking the town about installing the carports in their parking lots.

The town’s planning department has submitted a proposed addition to its code on renewable energy facilities that outlines the specifics of solar carports, including where they can be located. A public hearing on Babylon’s proposed law will take place at Town Hall in Lindenhurst at 3 p.m. on Oct. 22.

Solar carports are panels placed atop a canopy in parking lots that convert sunlight to electricity. They can cut electric bills for nearby businesses and residents while reducing greenhouse emissions.

Suffolk County has been installing the carports at train stations and municipal buildings over the last several years, and the Port Authority last year announced Kennedy Airport would be the site of the largest solar carport and energy storage system in the state.

Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said the town has been approached by several businesses looking into having the carports installed. He said he is in favor of them, including possibly adding them to town facilities.

“It would help the property owners, especially those who have suffered in this economy,” he said. “It also contributes to the clean and safe generation of additional energy that is needed.”

Schaffer said there is an additional benefit in that it helps with snow removal in the winter.

“You don’t have the problem of entire lots needing to be plowed,” he said.

The proposed law states solar carports would not be permitted in any areas zoned residential, unless the zoning is for multiresidential or senior multiresidential. They also could not be located in 100-year flood hazard zones or within 100 feet “landward of a tidal or freshwater wetland.”

The new code would stipulate the structures must be located on lots that are at least an acre with a minimum of 30 parking spaces and cannot be more than 20 feet high.

The proposed law requires setbacks, including a minimum front yard setback of 25 feet, and buffers, including a “suitably planted landscaped strip running along the front yard of the site” that’s at least 10 feet wide.

All solar carports would require a special exemption use permit from the planning board.

Town planner Emily Moll said she designed the code so the solar carports are “not right on top of adjacent homes.” The town also did not want to allow individual homeowners to have the carports in their driveway, she said.

“It would just be kind of a nuisance and an eyesore,” she said.

Moll said in her research she could not find another town on Long Island that has such a specific code for solar carports, calling the proposed legislation a “one of a kind code.”

Daniel Calise, first vice president of Constantino Brumidi Lodge No. 2211 in Deer Park, said he has been hoping to get a solar carport in the lodge’s parking lot for some time as part of larger efforts to go green. He said the structure would help extend the life of the parking lot, protecting it from the elements, and the electricity would benefit the lodge and the surrounding community. 

“Anything would be beneficial to us because we’re a not-for-profit,” he said, adding he is glad the town wants to allow them and regulate them.

“I think we should follow what the county and state are doing,” he said.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.