The Climate Smart Kingston Commission is proposing recommendations to help the City of Kingston prepare for lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, commonly known as BESS. These recommendations include updating the city’s Comprehensive Plan, revising zoning and permitting rules, and organizing training for first responders and municipal officials.
At the center of this effort is a major zoning question: Kingston is being asked to update its code to allow lithium-ion battery energy storage systems within city limits. On paper, this is presented as a straightforward planning update meant to align local regulations with New York’s clean energy goals. In practice, it raises a more difficult and often overlooked issue—whether the City of Kingston actually has the staff, technical expertise, and institutional capacity to write zoning code for this type of industrial infrastructure in a responsible way.
Zoning decisions like this are not just administrative updates. They determine where high-risk, high-complexity facilities are allowed to locate and under what conditions. Once those uses are written into the code, they become part of the city’s long-term land use framework and are difficult to unwind.
Wherever one lands on BESS as part of our future energy system, the real question is whether Kingston’s planning and zoning volunteers and staff has the expertise to responsibly regulate battery energy storage at all, or whether it is being asked to manage technical risks that exceed its capacity.
Follow along: Kingston Zoning Working Group and Climate Smart Kingston