FORESTBURGH, NY – The Forestburgh Town Hall is situated down a relatively quiet road off of Route 42, but inside the building last Thursday, the room was buzzing.
Over 50 residents packed the room, filling seats and lining the walls of the hall to learn more about the proposed Town Line solar power and battery storage facility during the June 4 Town of Forestburgh board meeting.
The developer RWE has proposed constructing a 200-megawatt solar facility alongside a 100-megawatt battery storage facility. It would stretch across more than 1,200 acres across the Towns of Thompson and Forestburgh.
John Lamontagne, external communications for RWE, said they’ve had “many productive meetings” with Sullivan County stakeholders since 2023.
“We’ve met with town supervisors in both Thompson and Forestburgh, county-level officials, the county Industrial Development Agency, county legislators, and local residents,” said Lamontagne in an email to Radio Catskill. “On top of that, RWE also has met multiple times with fire departments in Forestburgh and Monticello to discuss safety and security plans for the facility.”
RWE also hosted an open house in April 2025 at the Monticello High School to discuss the project and answer residents’ questions.
Still, residents say they have lots of questions about the project, notably its environmental impacts. Joe Johnson, a Forestburgh resident, says he’s for renewable energy, but it has to be done with ecological concerns in mind.
“I think alternative energy is a great thing. I think, however, there’s a lot better places than in a pristine forest area,” said Johnson.
County officials expect the developer RWE to submit an application to New York’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) by the end of June.
Town of Forestburgh Supervisor Dan Hogue says roughly 300 acres will be used for solar panels while the rest of the property will remain undisturbed.
Who approves the project, says Hogue, is where it gets complicated.
In 2020, New York established ORES to manage and approve permit applications for large scale renewable energy projects. Solar projects 25 megawatts or larger are required to obtain a siting permit from the state agency to begin construction.
Proposed developers must meet with local governments and agencies to mitigate any negative impacts as part of its pre-application process, but ORES is largely responsible for being the sole agency to approve the permit.
“ORES has the authority to override whatever your local government says, what your local zoning says,” said Hogue. “The state took that away from us.”
Sullivan County Planning Commissioner Heather Brown said that the proposed project area is entirely on private property.
But Christopher Titus, a local biologist in Monticello, worries that the southern boundary of the project sits several hundred feet from the Neversink River Unique Area.
“There are protected species on site and in the Neversink Gorge itself. There’s a species called dwarf wedgemussel, which is state protected [and] endangered, and any sort of change to the water quality would affect that animal,” said Titus.
Titus raised other environmental concerns during the meeting, including wildlife displacement impacts, pest management risks, and wetland threats.
The project is in close proximity to the Marcy South Power Line, a major high voltage transmission system, according to local officials.
The developer estimates the project will bring about $21.8 million in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) payments to Sullivan County and the Towns of Forestburgh and Thompson over 20 years.
Titus says he’s focused on rallying residents to share public comments with the state’s Department of Public Services.
“A lot of the community is not high-income, so sometimes it feels like all these projects are happening because we can’t fight them,” said Titus. “But I’m gonna fight ‘til there’s nothing left in me.”
Image: Town officials discuss the proposed solar power and battery energy storage system facility at the June 4 town meeting in Forestburgh, New York (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)