To the Editor:

Most people do not realize that a 66-plus acre solar farm is quietly being planned for Dunnsville Road.  The proposed site is the parcel one closer to the village of Altamont, next to the Altamont Orchard on the left as one heads southwest toward along Route 397, Dunnsville Road.

Living nearby, I drive along that route almost daily. I never fail to take in the lovely view of the Helderberg escarpment seen across those fields. It is sad to think of those hills covered by endless rows of  huge black solar panels glittering like insect carapace in the sun. It is overwhelming to imagine the vastness of the area to be covered by over 66 acres of solar panels.

My family and I have lived on Dunnsville Road for 35 years. The biggest reason we came here was because of the beauty of the escarpment and all of the surrounding area.

The Helderbergs are ancient and geologically unique mountains, creating an escarpment very rare in all the world. Certainly the beauty of this place is a great natural resource unique to the area, and something all of us treasure here. Compromising the view is a loss to all.

On a personal note, someday we will need to move on from our lovely home. We wonder what will happen to the value of our home, and the homes of our neighbors, if this proposal goes through.

The solar farm proposal calls for some plantings to be placed along the roadside but there is not going to be a way to conceal all of those solar panels as they cover the hillsides.

Who does not want to increase use of renewable, sustainable energy sources? Of course it is a necessary and desirable goal. The prospect of  worsening climate change is terrifying to every rational and thoughtful person.

But, why would we destroy a natural resource to achieve this? That seems to be no better than the oil companies that despoil the Arctic wilderness to drill.

Two recently installed large solar farms, also in the western end of Guilderland, are on properties minimally or not visible to the public and in areas not causing any natural resource to be compromised.    There has to be some better solution.

Virginia Khoury

Guilderland