ESCONDIDO, Calif. — A proposed 320 megawatt energy storage plant would be built on 22 acres. It's the site of a former horse ranch in Eden Valley, near Escondido and San Marcos. It's a move which drove several people to speak out during Wednesday's Escondido City Council meeting even though the site falls under unincorporated San Diego County.
"There's nothing wrong with these projects, they just have to be in the right place and in a neighborhood is not a good place for a very large project like this," Unincorporated Escondido Resident J.P Theberge said.
It's a project that's received pushback from people who live close to the proposed site, there's a petition with more than 3,000 signatures to stop the installation.
The council voted four to one to move forward with a resolution that will lay out principles for proposed Battery Energy System Projects in the city. Mayor Dane White gave instruction for staff to explore a moratorium on Battery Energy Storage Systems until proper zoning requirements are put in.
"Basically the resolution says we really need to think about where we place these things, we should regulate them right now there are no regulations so they are basically kinda throwing up a warning sign with this resolution," Theberge said.
The Permitting Director for AES, the company proposing the site near Escondido attended the council meeting. She tells CBS 8 the company wants to build a project that's going to be a good neighbor to the area.
"We've already instituted a series of changes to the project, weve reduced the project’s size, we've increased setbacks, we've made improvements to existing access to help in the event of a wildfire," AES representative said.
CBS 8 also asked the representative about what this resolution means for the proposed project.
"It will be interesting to see what actually gets you know put on paper and finalized, the discussion i think was very different than what the original resolution had said," AES representative said.
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