County publishes new draft battery storage rules ahead of first hearing on Nov. 18

Following multiple delays, Santa Cruz County officials on Friday published a draft ordinance that will regulate battery storage facilities like the one that caught fire in Moss Landing last January and the one currently being proposed for a site on the outskirts of Watsonville.

The draft ordinance was released Friday morning and is available on the county’s informational website, along with background materials and project documents for the proposed facility near Watsonville to help residents understand the purpose of the new rules. 

The long-awaited regulations are more stringent than a previous draft. If the proposed legislation passes as written, it would further limit where battery storage facilities can be built, mandate bigger setbacks from certain schools and other facilities, ban certain kinds of batteries and require air and water quality reports — in addition to other permitting and operational requirements.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the new rules for the first time on Nov. 18. If the board votes to approve the ordinance, it will undergo environmental review by the county, which is expected to wrap up by next summer, according to a timeline published on the county’s website. The ordinance would then go back to the board and the county’s planning and environmental commissions for further review before being adopted as early as next fall, according to a county news release. The entire process is expected to take up to a year. 

The ordinance was first introduced to elected officials last fall, months before the Moss Landing blaze and also before Massachusetts-based developer New Leaf Energy submitted an application to build a battery storage plant on Minto Road near Watsonville. 

According to a county staff report, the ordinance would make New Leaf’s pending application incomplete, as there are additional requirements it must meet. The report did not detail which requirements developers have and haven’t met. Once those requirements are met and the application is complete, it will be analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act. 

The new draft ordinance reduces the number of parcels of land that can be developed into battery storage facilities. In a previous draft, county staff had identified three locations: one near Dominican Hospital, another near Aptos High School and a third on Minto Road near Watsonville. Now, the site near the hospital is no longer an option, and the only feasible sites are in Watsonville and Aptos. 

County staff increased setback rules for facilities, requiring 100-foot setbacks from property lines and a 1,000-foot setback from “sensitive receptors” — which include schools, day care centers and residential care facilities. The county will require that batteries be stored in single use buildings or containers, or that they be located outside. 

The ordinance will also restrict the use of batteries containing nickel manganese cobalt; chemicals that were used in batteries at the Moss Landing facility. Facilities will also be required to comply with the National Fire Protection standards, along with local and state fire code standards. Developers will also need to consult with local fire districts prior to submitting their application or within a month of the ordinance adoption. 

Developers will be required to submit baseline data on air quality, surface water, groundwater and soil, which can be used as a comparison if a fire were to occur at the facility. Applicants will need to provide a smoke drift study demonstrating how the plume of a fire will drift in the air to understand safety risks. 

Other added requirements to the ordinance include requiring developers to submit a fire risk analysis, emergency response and action plans, and annual inspection, testing and monitoring plan. 

Stephanie Hansen, the county’s assistant director of community development and infrastructure, told Lookout in September that when the ordinance was originally proposed, it was focused on finding suitable land parcels close to electricity substations, with an eye toward improving electrical service for the region and supporting green energy sources. Following the Moss Landing fire in January, Hansen said, the ordinance has shifted to focus on safety standards for the facilities.

Originally scheduled to be discussed by supervisors in April, the ordinance was delayed twice. First, county officials waited on environmental tests after the Moss Landing fire. Then they waited on a bill authored by state Sen. John Laird to make its way through the legislature in Sacramento. It requires battery storage developers to coordinate with local fire departments before submitting an application to both the state energy commission and local governments for their projects. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on Oct. 8. 

January’s massive fire at Moss Landing hangs over the work on this ordinance — a local effort to regulate important energy producing infrastructure. The 300-megawatt facility owned by Texas-based Vistra — the largest battery facility in the world — caught fire on Jan. 16. The blaze continued at the Monterey County plant, just a few miles south of Santa Cruz County, until Jan. 18. It flared up again a month later, on Feb. 18, and was finally extinguished a day later. 

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