RIC Energy has withdrawn its application for a solar array on Route 82 in Ancram, ending a review that began in 2024 and prompted more than a year of public hearings.
Ancram Planning Board Chair Joe Crocco announced the renewable energy developer’s withdrawal at the board’s July 9 meeting.
The company first presented plans for the project in November 2024. The proposal called for installing solar panels on 9.45 acres of a 95-acre property owned by Ancram Highway Superintendent Jim Miller at 3333 Route 82. The withdrawal closed a public hearing that ran from April 2025 through May 2026.
In a June 17 email, RIC Energy project manager Ciara Hopkins requested that the town suspend all review work and spending associated with the application. The email was sent to Crocco, Town Attorney John Lyons, town consultants Nan Stolzenburg and George Janes, and others involved in reviewing the proposal.
The company withdrew the application for “procedural and economical reasons,” said Sinead Ross, RIC Energy’s director of communications.
“The process has been going on for a long time, with additional requests beyond the scope of the project,” Ross said.
At the board’s May meeting, Lyons directed members to consult with the town’s advisers about an updated visual assessment submitted by the applicant in March before reaching a conclusion.
Miller criticized the length and cost of the review.
“The Planning Board, in crude terms, was wasting their money on excessive escrow demands, legal fees, consultants, to the tune of almost $20,000 and wanted more, and they decided it wasn’t worth it on such a small project,” Miller said. “I can’t say I blame them, I’m not happy about it either.”
Miller said he had viewed the project as a source of retirement income that could also allow his family to retain the land. He now plans to sell the property and said he would consider offers from the highest bidder.
“I was kind of counting on it as part of my retirement,” he said. “My family could hang on to the land, continue to reap the benefits of it after I’m gone. Now it’s all up in the air.”
The extended public hearing drew concerns from residents about the proposed panels’ potential effect on views of the surrounding landscape.
Andrea Ghaschke, who lives near the site on Woods Court Road, started a petition opposing the project last year that received about 506 signatures. She also created Saving Scenic Ancram, a platform through which residents could organize and participate in discussions about the proposal.
“I guess you grow attached to the fact that you live in a place where you see these lovely, you know, rolling hills and it’s traditional farming,” Ghaschke said. “It’s really that image of that rural character.”
Ghaschke and a group of neighbors hired an attorney, a drone pilot, and an environmental specialist to conduct an independent review of the proposal.
“I think solar power is a really good idea, I think that we have to be realistic about trying to diversify where we get energy from,” she said. “On the same token, I think that we have to be really cognizant about the siting and be very sensible about how we do it.”
Sad that a bunch of “Not-in-my-Back-Yard” neighbors confiscated Mr. Miller’s property rights, all the while engaging in the virtue signaling of professing support for the development of renewable energy as long as it doesn’t harm them.