We, the undersigned residents and taxpayers of Oneida County, respectfully demand that the City of Rome Common Council, Rome Zoning Board of Appeals, Rome Planning Board, and Oneida County Legislature along with OCIDA take immediate action on the proposed solar farm at 5792 Old Oneida Road.

Back in 2024 the Rome Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-1 to deny the special use permit after neighbors spoke out about losing good farmland, risks to private wells and wetlands, and damage to the rural character of the area. The developer, NY Rome Old Oneida Solar (a subsidiary of Emeren Group, originally founded in 2005 in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province, China), then sued the city. Rather than defend the community’s decision in court, the city settled and reversed the denial.

The project later received conditional approval in April 2025, but several key conditions still have not been properly met. These include a fully executed Host Community Agreement with the City of Rome, an adequate decommissioning bond that is currently only around 120,000 dollars versus an estimated real cleanup cost of over 2 million dollars, stormwater permits, road agreements, and other final requirements.

The developer was granted a 15-year tax abatement through OCIDA worth millions of dollars at the same time Oneida County raised property taxes by 2.9%. The energy credits from this "community solar project" will be sold across Upstate New York, not even helping local ratepayers in Rome. From the beginning the plan was to build it and then sell it to a California company called GoodFinch Management. From start to finish this project has ignored the complaints and hardships of the local population, in favor of outsiders, from across the Country, or across the Globe. 

We ask the City of Rome to immediately enforce every condition and refuse to issue a building permit. We also ask that a fully funded, independent third-party decommissioning bond be required and that the approvals be reviewed in light of the planned ownership change and the foreign origins of the original developer.

If these conditions are not met, we strongly urge the City and County to revoke the approvals and protect our farmland and taxpayers.