COCHECTON — The Cochecton Town Board called together a special meeting Wednesday evening to amend their current solar zoning law and compile a draft that will be looked over at the next Planning Board meeting, which takes place on the last Thursday of the month at 7:30 p.m.

The board was met with an empty room, but continued on unabated.

Laid out before each member were solar drafts from the Towns of Fremont, Delaware and Wallkill.

Town Supervisor Gary Maas asked the board if they had any comments before they began, to which Councilman Paul Salzberg replied, “I've read Fremont's draft and looked through Wallkill's, and Fremont's draft looks really good. It's very clear.”

Councilman Sean Nearing agreed, saying, “Fremont's draft is pretty straight forward. There are a couple of little things that I could see us changing for Cochecton but other than that, I like Fremont's.”

Upon further discussion, the board members unanimously decided to use Fremont's solar zoning draft as the basis for their own, going through each section, page by page. Small changes were made where the board saw fit, while other parts stayed as is.

Halfway through the meeting Zoning Board Chairperson Jerold Yavarkovsky entered the meeting room, taking a seat in front.

When discussing Section G.2.i. (Large-scale Solar Energy Generating Systems) the board came to a brief standstill trying to come together on an agreeable and practical minimum setback from property lines and roadways.

“Just because some people want solar,” said Councilwoman Anna Story, “doesn't mean that other people should have to deal with it.”

“Solar is the energy of the future. It's not coal, it's not oil. It's clean energy,” said Yavarkovsky. “There are compromises with everything and there will always be issues, but that's why you need to control it.”

Finally coming to an agreement, the Town Board finished up their solar draft, confident in the small changes made, and ready to pass it onto the Planning Board.

Before the meeting was adjourned Salzberg said, “We have to think about this from all sides and make this fair to everyone.”