The Clay Town Board did not close the public hearing on its proposed battery storage law on April 20, 2026 — it adjourned it to May 4, after attorneys and representatives for three battery-storage developers told the board its draft setback rules would leave almost nowhere in town to build. Deputy Supervisor Joseph Bick, presiding at Town Hall in the absence of Supervisor Damian Ulatowski, said he would not close the hearing until the town produces another draft. The meeting opened at 7:30 p.m. with Bick presiding. Councilors David Capria, Eugene Young, Edward Wisnowski, Ryan Russell and Courtney Gauthier were present, along with Deputy Town Clerk Cheryl Decker, Commissioner of Planning and Development Brian Bender, Town Attorney Robert Germain and Town Engineer Ron DeTota. Town Clerk Jill Hageman-Clark was absent. Planning Board member Hal Henty also attended. The board opened by approving the minutes of the April 6 meeting, 6-0. The battery storage law, Local Law No. 4 of 2026, would create a new Town Code chapter, Chapter 209, titled the "Town of Clay Battery Energy Storage System Law." As drafted, it would require large ("Tier 3") battery systems to sit at least 250 feet from every property line, on top of separate minimum clearances of 750 feet from occupied community buildings and 500 feet from "critical transportation infrastructure." Sera Yoon, an attorney with the firm HodgsonRuss representing developer Aurora Renewables, asked whether the 250 feet was meant to be added on top of those other clearances rather than absorbed into them. Jim Hickey, a landowner on Goguen Drive, told the board that adding the 250 feet on top of the existing setbacks would require at least 8 1/2 acres of land and would exclude projects. Erik Anderson of Carson Power said the setback as drafted would hurt his company's pending application. Olivia Sproviero of NexAmp said her company agreed with the objections raised by both Aurora and Carson Power. Aurora's attorney, Henry Zomerfeld, had submitted a letter in advance of the meeting arguing the draft "would operate as a de facto prohibition on Tier 3 BESS within the Town," citing a line of New York court rulings — including the 1978 Court of Appeals case Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y. v. Hoffman — holding that a town cannot use its zoning power to make a public utility use impossible to site anywhere within its borders. The letter also noted the draft would permit Tier 3 systems only in a "Commercial Solar" zoning district that does not exist on Clay's zoning map, and invoked the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets a target of 6,000 MW of energy storage statewide by 2030. Carson Power's letter, filed on behalf of its pending Wetzel BESS A&B application, calculated that the 250-foot property-line setback would require "roughly 8 acres or more" to site a typical battery project; NexAmp's letter put the same threshold at "approximately 6 acres." Both companies argued few industrial-zoned parcels in Clay are large enough to qualify. NexAmp's letter also cited a May 2025 research paper reviewing 178 battery projects in New York, Massachusetts and California that found no statistically relevant effect on property values, and noted that a Cicero town supervisor had described a similar battery law elsewhere as "the strictest in the state." Bender told the board the draft law would need modifications. Bick said the site-plan-application section of the law, Section 209-9, would need to be amended to address the setback question, and Young said a revised draft would be posted before the next hearing. On a motion by Bick, seconded by Young, the board voted 6-0 to adjourn the hearing to May 4, 2026 at 7:47 p.m. without closing it. The board took the same wait-and-see approach to a proposed smoke-shop law. It did not adopt or hold a hearing on Local Law No. 5 of 2026, which would define Smoke Shops in the town code and require a special permit from the Town Board to operate one in the RC-1, HC-1 and NC-1 commercial zoning districts. On a motion by Councilor Russell, seconded by Young, the board instead voted 6-0 to call a public hearing on the proposal for May 4 at 7:41 p.m. The board also called, but did not decide, two other May 4 hearings: one on a special permit for a Community Bank drive-thru at 4000 State Route 31, a 14.9-acre parcel in the RC-1 district (moved by Capria, seconded by Young, 6-0, hearing at 7:38 p.m.), and one on a 2027 Community Development Block Grant application for street repairs on Steelway Blvd. South (moved by Wisnowski, seconded by Capria, 6-0, hearing at 7:44 p.m.). One land-use matter did conclude April 20, though without a recorded vote: the board closed its public hearing on a special permit for Steven Calocerinos of 4793 Buckley Road, who is seeking to convert a single-family home on 3.53 acres into a two-family dwelling by adding an outdoor stairwell to a second unit. Calocerinos told the board he had no plans to add further rental units to the property. The minutes as released show the hearing was closed but do not record a vote on the application itself. The board approved several other items by 6-0 votes. It accepted the 2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan for the Town of Clay Annex, which has already been approved by New York State and FEMA and is required for the town to remain eligible for certain disaster-assistance funding. It authorized the supervisor or deputy supervisor to apply for a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant to buy and install a generator for Town Hall, which would require the town to provide a 25 percent local match. And it approved a temporary workspace agreement letting National Grid store trucks and equipment for up to six months in the rear of Town Hall's east parking lot while it repairs underground utility facilities nearby, in exchange for $1,823.39 in compensation to the town. During the public-comment period, residents Caitlyn and Jarrett Winders raised what they described as ongoing noise from concerts at Sharkey's, saying the venue has been cited for violations but has ignored them, and asked how long it would take the town to resolve the issue. Bick said concerts might need their own code provision governing hours and frequency. Winders said the Town of Salina had also been contacted about the issue; Councilor Capria said the board had discussed the matter in previous meetings, and Bick said he had no knowledge of any correspondence with Salina but, filling in for Ulatowski, would look into it. The meeting adjourned at 8:19 p.m. on a motion by Young, seconded by Gauthier, 6-0.