Draft policy sets rules for community and environmental impacts of battery energy storage.
RIDEAU LAKES — A policy meant to give Rideau Lakes council a jolt of clarity on battery energy storage projects instead lost momentum last week, as councillors deferred the issue to the Planning Advisory Committee.
Rideau Lakes committee of the whole deferred a proposed Battery Energy Storage Systems policy, sending it to the Planning Advisory Committee for further review.
The draft policy, brought forward by Chief Administrative Officer Shellee Fournier, was intended to establish a framework to guide how future battery energy storage proposals would be handled after the township received a recent application without any policy in place.
“Without a policy, we have 60 days and no pre consultation,” Fournier told council at the Jan. 12 committee of the whole meeting. “This requires pre consultation with both the developer and the municipality and has the proponent look at community benefits, dollars that would come to the municipality, so it gets all of that work done in advance, which would make a much better application.”
The proposed policy outlines expectations related to pre consultation, developer agreements, insurance and liability, community benefit contributions, environmental mitigation, noise, security, and minimum setbacks of 300 metres from sensitive land uses. The policy does not approve projects, with final decisions remaining with council.
Several councillors raised concerns about whether the draft policy goes far enough, particularly around setbacks and land use impacts.
Coun. Deborah Hutchings argued the proposed distances are inadequate.
“Three hundred metres is not enough. I’m talking kilometres,” Hutchings said. “Three hundred metres, you could almost throw a baseball.”
Hutchings also suggested putting a question on the ballot to ask taxpayers what they would like to see.
Staff suggested Hutchings bring forward a proposed question at the next committee meeting on Jan. 26, when council is expected to consider ballot questions related to the Chantry office retrofit ahead of the October municipal election.
Township planner Tom Fehr told council that while the policy establishes a process, stronger restrictions would need to be addressed through zoning rather than policy.
“The setbacks that are identified in the policy are kind of an initial thing we’re proposing here,” Fehr said. “I’d recommend that these items or any of these provisions are put into the zoning by law as well, and that would have more teeth land use wise than this policy.”
Coun. Paula Banks supported the policy in principle, arguing it would give council more information earlier in the process.
“This is a great first step,” she said. “This at least gets the information out in advance instead of trying to pass a municipal servicing resolution with not a lot of information.”
Coun. Marcia Maxwell questioned whether the policy would ever be used, suggesting the requirements could discourage future proponents.
“I think we’re going through a lot of work to put together a policy for something that, once we have this, it will never be used,” Maxwell said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to approach us to consider putting another one in.”
Coun. Dustin Bulloch said he supports having a policy in place but emphasized the need for more information and clarity before council moves forward.
“There’s a lot of information out there that would be beneficial to people,” Bulloch said. “If we’re going to ask the public to vote on anything related to this, I think we need to make sure we’re doing due diligence to bring forward a lot of information.”
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