Quick Take
Lifelong residents near the proposed battery storage facility on Minto Road outside Watsonville talked with Lookout about their concerns over the project, with some saying that they’ve thought about moving out of the area if the project gets approved.
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For nearly five decades, Anthony Olmeda has lived at the intersection of Meidl Avenue and Minto Road. The house he shares with his wife and dog used to be his mother’s, and before moving in, he lived in the house next door.
“We grew up here,” he said.
In fact, many of the residents along Meidl Avenue, Dick Phelps Road and Minto Road on the outskirts of Watsonville have lived there for most of their lives, planting roots and creating homes for themselves and their families.
The quiet working-class neighborhood is bordered by an apple orchard and a few berry fields. Front yards are nicely landscaped and decorated — some now display signs in support of particular county supervisor candidates running in the June 2 primary. In the afternoons, young children ride their bikes and scooters or take walks with their parents before the sun begins to set.
It’s a place Olmeda and others have never considered leaving. But that was until the neighborhood learned about plans to build a battery storage facility less than a mile from them, at 90 Minto Rd.
Residents were shocked — especially on the heels of a massive blaze in Moss Landing that destroyed what was then the world’s second-largest battery storage plant. The fire damaged a turbine hall of a gas power plant built in the 1950s that was converted to hold nearly 35,000 batteries.
“I actually found out [about the project] through my neighbors,” Olmeda said. “When they said Minto Road, we’re like, ‘What?’”
Massachusetts-based developer New Leaf Energy submitted an application with Santa Cruz County in December 2024 for a $200 million battery storage facility, weeks before the Moss Landing fire.
Battery storage systems are a source of renewable energy that have become crucial to California’s plan for 100% clean energy by 2045, a tool to hold excess wind and solar power when the demand is high. The Minto Road project aims to reduce the number of power outages in the area and support the local power grid with renewable energy, according to Max Christian, a senior developer with New Leaf.
New Leaf withdrew its application with the county on May 7, according to the county’s website and is now pursuing project approval through the California Energy Commission’s “opt-in” process. This allows developers to bypass the local permitting process due to a 2022 law establishing the California Energy Commission’s authority to approve renewable energy projects.
New Leaf submitted its new application to the state energy commission on Wednesday. The project is listed now on the commission’s website, where community members are able to begin submitting public comments.
For nearly a year and a half, South County residents have placed the project and New Leaf under a microscope, forming several grassroots organizations with the goal of ensuring that this battery storage facility doesn’t get approved.
“You talk to anyone here, they’re against it,” Olmeda said, and he’s right. Most of the residents who spoke to Lookout said they are against the project.
With the looming possibility of the state approving New Leaf’s project, Olmeda and his neighbors are for the first time contemplating the idea of moving out of their beloved neighborhood due to their concerns over the proposed facility.
Two doors down from Olmeda’s home, Robert Lyons told Lookout that many of the houses in the neighborhood, including his own, were built during the 1920s, a time when each home had its own well with direct access to spring water. Lyons said most of the properties have large front and backyards, which are great for people who enjoy gardening, as his wife does.
Lyons, who is also a Watsonville native, has lived on Meidl Avenue for decades. He moved into his home in 1975.
Some of the biggest concerns Olmeda and Lyons have about the project are focused on safety and its location.
Despite being supportive of renewable energy, Lyons said he’s not a fan of putting a battery storage facility on the 16-acre apple orchard at the end of Minto Road — less than a quarter-mile from his home and others. New Leaf plans to use a portion of the apple orchard, where the soil is not viable for planting apple trees, according to Christian last year. The rest of the property will still be used as an orchard by the family who owns it.
Everybody would agree that another big problem with the project is the location, and not just because it will be using an apple orchard, Lyons said. “There’s thousands of people that live around here, within a mile or two of the site.”
It would be a shame to lose that agricultural land, said Lyons. Most of those trees, he says, are more than 100 years old. “The soil in this area is very, very rich, and I think it’s some of the richest soils in the world,” he said.
Within blocks of the proposed battery facility site are Pinto Lake Park and Amesti Elementary School, said Olmeda.
“There’s kids, there’s a school,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Christian previously told Lookout that the Minto Road site was perfect for New Leaf’s project because it sits on a large plot of agricultural land and is adjacent to a Pacific Gas & Electric substation.
New Leaf conducted a hazard mitigation process, which assesses any potential risks to nearby residences and outlines ways to mitigate any of those risks, such as the project’s containerized design meant to suppress flames immediately and planning to have a buffer zone between the facility and surrounding buildings, such as homes, of over 300 feet, Christian said via email.
Olmeda and Lyons both say they think there’s a high chance the project will get approved by the state energy commission. Some community organizers, however, have told Lookout that the state process will be more rigorous for New Leaf.
“I think everyone around here is going to start thinking, ‘I’m going to move,’” Lyons said.
Lyons added that he’s concerned that the property value of his home will drop and insurance costs will increase as a result of having a battery storage facility less than a mile away.
Beyond his concerns about property value and home insurance costs, he’s also worried about the long-term impacts of the Moss Landing fire, he said. “I want to see what the effects of that big fire are ultimately going to be,” he said.
While the direct environmental and health impacts of that fire have not been fully determined, researchers at San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories estimated that nearly 55,000 pounds of heavy metals had contaminated soil within a mile surrounding Elkhorn Slough following the massive blaze.
“We would all have to leave our houses if something happens,” Olmeda said. Following the fire in Moss Landing, Monterey County officials issued a temporary evacuation order for nearby residents that lasted a day.
Longtime resident Yolanda Perez, who lives in Schapiro Knolls, a low-income housing community on Minto Road, said many of her friends and family members have recommended that she move out of her apartment.
The apartment complex has 88 units, occupied mostly by low-income families — many of whom work in the agriculture and hospitality industries.
“A lot of people ask me about the project and how I feel about it,” she told Lookout in Spanish. “People have also told me that we can’t let [New Leaf] put a battery plant here.”
But unlike Lyons and Olmeda, Perez said she would rather continue living on Minto Road because it’s quiet and comfortable, and she’s laid down roots in this neighborhood despite being scared and concerned about safety risks. Perez added that she wouldn’t know how to react, let alone be prepared, if a fire were to break out.
New Leaf has maintained the batteries that will be used for its proposed facility are safer than the ones used at the Moss Landing site. The batteries that caught fire last year were known as NMC batteries, made of nickel, manganese and cobalt. This type of battery, at a utility scale, is more volatile and prone to “thermal runaway,” a chain reaction that causes batteries to overheat and catch fire or explode.
The batteries New Leaf plans to use are the industry-preferred LFP batteries, made of lithium, iron and phosphate. This type of battery is lighter, cheaper and less prone to thermal runaway, according to Christian.
However, residents and community organizers remain skeptical of those claims. “Are there really going to be safe new chemicals?” Lyons said.
Ultimately, the decision to leave the neighborhood would be a hard one to make, said Lyons. “I have a major amount of material, as well as memories of being here,” he said.
One of the reasons why Olmeda and so many of his neighbors enjoy living in the rural areas of South County is because they’re away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Olmeda said the only way he’d feel at ease with a battery storage facility in his backyard would be if New Leaf paid him and other neighbors to move.
“Buy us out and let us move,” he said. “And they can do whatever they want.”
While the project has yet to be heard by the state energy commission, these residents told Lookout they are ready to speak at the public hearings once they are scheduled, and will also continue to attend any community-organized meetings to keep themselves informed.
“All the neighbors are not happy about it around here,” Lyons said. “These are working-class people. They’re just trying to exist, make their payments.”
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