Too Many Impediments for Mt. Kisco to House Battery Storage System
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
In response to a letter from Bridget McFadden, a Sleepy Hollow, entitled “Mount Kisco Energy Storage System Key to a More Resilient Grid” last week, I am sure her letter was written in good faith and based upon authentic and very serious concerns about fossil fuels.
However, Ms. McFadden’s letter wrote specifically that the proposed energy storage system at the proposed Mount Kisco location, is the “key to a more resilient grid.” Her legitimate concern for the harm of fossil fuels has led her somehow to a lack of consideration of environmental justice – and environmental injustice.
The specific location proposed for the battery storage facility in Mount Kisco is a major traffic nightmare during many hours of the day, including one that could be challenging for ambulances and fire trucks that might need to get through. The new ShopRite at that location has not opened yet, but construction trucks for that project are already numerous on the two-lane North Bedford Road. The air quality is worsening and becoming increasingly unhealthy with these vehicles sitting in traffic.
Diamond Properties, the owner of the complex where the system would be located, has reported that during “peak hours” there are 400 cars entering and exiting the location for the Saw Mill Club East. There is a school bus company right there. There are car dealerships in close proximity, and car trailers often sit in the middle of the road, struggling to turn in and out. There is a new sports activity business at the same location with after-school and early evening programs.
A previous Village Board had approved the new ShopRite location with a contingency that the intersection would be reconfigured. That previous board failed to exercise due diligence, however, and did not learn that the electronics store that would need to relocate to accomplish the reconfiguration still had years left on its lease. So the intersection cannot be reconfigured for years after the ShopRite opens.
One could go back to the 1980s and suggest that the then-Village Board should not have approved Brookside and Foxwood condominiums for hundreds of residents who live directly across the street from the nightmare described above, if they intended to take the “light manufacturing” or “industrial” zoning of the location so broadly and literally.
Respectfully, Mount Kisco, especially at the proposed location, may not be “the key to a more resilient grid.” That this geographically tiny, densely populated village is being called upon now to be the “key” to an environmental crisis is remarkable. The proposed location might more accurately be described as a disrespectful example of environmental injustice.
Judith Sage
Mount Kisco
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