ANSONIA – Ten months after the Board of Aldermen approved distributing $40,000 in settlement funds to Hilltop residents near a Benz Street solar farm, no one has been paid.
City officials say the company behind the development – Allco Renewable Energy – is to blame.
The company says Mayor David Cassetti’s administration is to blame.
Dennis Conway, who lives on Benz Street, is owed money and said he can’t get a straight answer.
“We’re just getting a run-around on what’s going on, and nobody wants to be accountable for it,” Conway said.
Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini told The Valley Indy in February that the money would be paid in April. Then April came and went.
In October, Conway asked city officials and was told he might receive money by the holidays, he said.
Marini told The Valley Indy on Dec. 4 that he can’t estimate when the payments might be made. Allco hasn’t given the money to the Cassetti administration to give to the residents.
Allco CEO Thomas Melone said his company hasn’t paid because the city is violating other terms of the lawsuit settlement.
Background
Allco first proposed building a solar farm on undeveloped land it owns at 31 Benz St. in 2020. It was met with instant opposition from neighbors who worried that it could become an eyesore and reduce the amount of open space in Ansonia.
Mayor David Cassetti’s administration also opposed the proposal, with both Cassetti and Marini saying they don’t want the project. However, approval for the solar project comes from the state Siting Council – not from the city.
Allco’s original application was rejected by the state in March of 2021. The Siting Council reversed its decision on appeal three months later and approved the project. City officials continued to oppose the project.
After two years of no development, Allco sued the city in June 2023. The company alleged that the city had made development on the site impossible by refusing to tie it into the stormwater system.
The parties reached a settlement in September 2023. Under the terms of the settlement, the city is required to let development begin by issuing necessary permits and tie-ins. In exchange, Allco is required to make a one-time, $40,000 payment to the city. The Cassetti administration said it would share that money with neighbors.
Company Says City Violating Settlement. City Says Company Violating Settlement
Development has begun on the Benz Street property.
However, Allco says the city has stonewalled development of another of its projects – on a neighboring property on Hill Street – which is also mentioned in the settlement.
Melone said the company will pay the city as soon as it approves a site plan which the planning & zoning commission rejected in October. That project is subject to city approval – not state approval – because it’s smaller than the Benz Street project.
“I’m disappointed that we haven’t disbursed the $40,000 to the city yet too,” Melone wrote in an email. “The check has been on my desk since October waiting to send to the city. The issue is that the city denied the approval for the site plan that was filed for the one-megawatt project on the Hill St parcel.”
Marini responded to Melone’s statement in an email, saying that Allco’s proposal didn’t meet Ansonia’s zoning regulations and that they couldn’t approve the project as a result.
Marini also said the settlement was written with the understanding that Allco would seek approval from the state for the Hill Street property, and that the city would support its application. However, since Allco sought approval directly from the city, the settlement terms don’t apply, Marini said.
The company “has decided to deviate from the terms of the settlement and request site plan approval directly from the City’s local Planning & Zoning Commission; a course of action not contemplated by the terms of the settlement agreement and therefore beyond the scope of the parties’ settlement,” Marini wrote.
Melone said the project abides by current regulations and should be approved.
Both Marini and Melone said they have proposed mediating the matter and that their proposals were rejected by the other party. Marini threatened to take Allco to court if a solution isn’t reached.
It currently appears residents will not see a dime of the settlement funds until the parties decide who’s to blame.
“I’ve spoken with the mayor on several different occasions about what is going on with that project,” Conway told The Valley Indy. “It also came up, when would we expect some sort of compensation for what’s going on up there? And we have been just put on hold.”
