Host Community Agreements for Wind Farm Development

A host community agreement (HCA) is a contract between a developer and the local governing body or bodies of the host community, whereby the developer agrees to provide the community with certain benefits and mitigate specified impacts of the project. This has been a popular device with wind farm developers and municipalities. While the media focus, and much of the public discussion, has been on the financial benefits HCAs can generate, they can also be important tools in the environmental arena, by providing protocols for noise testing over the life of a project, insuring that local roads are properly remediated from the effects of the wind farm construction, and securing the funding for decommissioning that may not occur for decades. Some, however, have questionned whether HCAs amount to illegal contract zoning or unethical practices. Because of the varied role they play, HCAs rely on a variety of municipal powers for their legality. This article examines the role of the HCAs in wind farm developments, and their basis in New York law, in particular the legal basis for the financial benefits paid to local communities