New Scotland residents packed a special Town Board meeting Wednesday night to demand stricter rules for battery energy storage systems, arguing the town's current law lets the facilities sit far too close to homes. Under existing regulations, battery storage systems can be built in residential zones of seven acres or more, as near as 135 feet from a property line — a distance several residents said leaves them exposed to fire and toxic gas risks.
The pushback, first detailed by NEWS10 ABC, centers on a push to rewrite the town's battery-storage law so facilities are confined to industrial zones rather than allowed near residential property. Stacey DiMura, a New Scotland resident and member of the group Not In Our BESS-t Interest, told the board the systems should be kept well beyond 135 feet from homes. Residents at the meeting characterized battery energy storage systems as too loud and too dangerous to sit so close to where people live.
Fire Risk and Gas Concerns Take Center Stage
Much of Wednesday's discussion focused on what happens when something goes wrong inside a battery storage unit. The facilities store energy and release it back into the grid when demand is high, but the board acknowledged that lithium-ion batteries packed into large containers can release poisonous gas if they catch fire — and that such fires cannot be extinguished with water, per the same NEWS10 report.
New York State recommends an evacuation zone of at least 300 feet around these systems. Town board member Dan Leinung said that if New Scotland imposes its own setback requirement, it would likely be significantly greater than that 300-foot state recommendation. The board signaled it is open to considering changes that would move battery systems farther from houses than current law allows.
The Wormer Road Project in Limbo
The debate comes as a specific project remains stalled. Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy has proposed a five-megawatt battery energy storage system on Wormer Road in New Scotland. The company has said its proposal meets the 2025 New York State Fire Code, which it described as the country's most sophisticated fire code, according to NEWS10's report.
Accounts differ on why the project is currently paused. NEWS10 reported the proposal is on hold for at least a few months pending a decision by the Planning Board, while The Altamont Enterprise reported the hold stems from New Leaf Energy's search for a viable water source to serve the site. The two outlets also differ on the project's exact address, with NEWS10 and other reporting citing Wormer Road generally, the Enterprise identifying the site as 37 Wormer Road on land owned by a town councilman, and the Daily Gazette identifying it as 39 Wormer Road, where New Leaf is seeking a special-use permit to build the system using Tesla Megapack 2XL units.
New Scotland Weighs Its Options Without a Statewide Rulebook
New Scotland isn't alone in grappling with these questions. The Altamont Enterprise reported that residents at the special session pointed to Guilderland, a draft law in Bethlehem limiting facilities to industrial zones, and the town of Tonawanda in western New York, which adopted its own battery storage law in March 2024. New York's statewide BESS guidelines currently include two tiers of regulation, though some municipalities like Tonawanda have created a third tier of their own, per the Enterprise.
That patchwork approach reflects a broader tension described by Spectrum News: New Scotland is weighing the state's clean-energy goals against neighborhood safety concerns with no statewide rulebook yet in place to guide the decision. Supporters of battery storage, including developers and officials quoted by the Times Union, describe the systems as a tool to support and balance the electric grid rather than a neighborhood hazard.
New Scotland has already granted at least one such project approval elsewhere in town. RIC Development LLC won permit approval for a five-megawatt facility at 1543 Indian Fields Road in Feura Bush, according to the Daily Gazette, with the Planning Board attaching 45 conditions covering emergency planning, landscaping, lighting and fire-protection measures.
Town Officials Say They're Listening
New Scotland Town Supervisor Douglas LaGrange told residents it was good to hear their research and suggestions during Wednesday's session. Leinung said the board would review what residents brought forward and determine what makes sense for the town going forward, though no changes to the law have yet been adopted and the outcome of Wednesday's special meeting was not immediately resolved.
