services

I. Practice Overview

Mr. Sweeney’s in-depth experience enables him to provide practical, forward thinking advice and guidance on a full range of matters involving the development of renewable and alternative energy generation facilities and zoning and land use matters. His experience guiding green and other development projects from concept through permitting, financing and construction as well as advising clients on regulatory compliance federal and state environmental statutory and regulatory programs makes him uniquely qualified to assist clients with projects throughout New York State and beyond.

This experience together with in-depth knowledge of the regulators, such as the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, the NYS Public Service Commission, the NY State Historic Preservation Office, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, make the firm uniquely situated to interact with these agencies on your behalf. Whether seeking assistance through the course of project reviews, enforcement actions or regulatory inquiries, Mr. Sweeney can help clients navigate not just the web of laws and regulations but through the people and personalities crucial to the timely, effective review of your projects.

Renewable Energy Practice

Mr. Sweeney has aided clients across the spectrum of the alternative and renewable energy world on small and utility-scale projects such as wind farms, solar projects, biomass facilities, waste-to-energy projects and energy storage facilities. In recent years, he has advised clients on and handled the permitting of numerous solar projects under the prior Net-Metering framework, community distributed generation projects subject to the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (“VDER”) proceeding and has appeared before the Public Service Commission on behalf of project developers, power generators and transmission companies.

This unique background counseling clients on the many challenges and opportunities that accompany renewable projects enable Mr. Sweeney to provide comprehensive services that include:

Project Planning. Mr. Sweeney assists clients at the earliest phases of renewable projects including the evaluation of renewable portfolio standards, availability state and federal incentives and tax credits as well as evaluating environmental and other issues affecting the permitting and economics of projects.

Incentive Programs. Mr. Sweeney has advised clients on the opportunities for incentives offered by the New York State Research and Development Authority (“NYSERDA”) Tier I Solicitations, Tier II maintenance contracts, PONs and incentive programs such as NY-Sun as well as Massachusetts and New Jersey SREC Initiatives and other programs such as those offered by utilities. He has assisted clients with regulatory issues associated with net-metering, remote net metering, community distributed generation, interconnection, feed-in tariffs and other benefit programs.

PSC Proceedings and Regulatory Review. Mr. Sweeney represented clients in the REV proceeding, the Clean Energy Standard proceeding and advised clients in the Article X utility-scale generation facility siting process. His experience includes representing clients seeking declaratory rulings on various regulatory issues including the preparation of application, requests for declaratory rulings and appearances before the Commission.

Environmental Review and Zoning and Permitting. Mr. Sweeney has extensive experience assisting clients through the environmental review process and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) in New York as well as other state’s review acts. Mr. Sweeney has guided developers of numerous commercial/retail, cellular communication facility, wind farms and solar energy projects through the zoning and permitting processes on the local, state and federal levels. He has successfully secured right to build approvals for over 40 cellular facilities, 800 MW of wind energy and over 50 MW of solar energy projects throughout New York.

Real Property Taxes and PILOTs. Mr. Sweeney has extensive experience assisting clients in drafting and negotiating PILOT agreements for wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. As such, he has advised developers and municipalities on the provisions and requirement of Real Property Tax Law Section 487 and, when necessary, advised developers negotiating appropriate assessed values for solar projects and related taxes for communities that have opted out of RPTL Section 487.

Project Related Real Estate. Mr. Sweeney assists developers and landowners in the drafting, execution and enforcement of lease and easement agreements necessary for project facilities such as wind turbines, solar arrays, access roads, collection and transmission lines, and compliance with local setback and noise regulations.

Project Agreements. Mr. Sweeney regularly assists in drafting of contracts for construction of large-scale energy-related facilities, such as host community agreements, road use agreements, interconnection agreements and equipment leases and operation and maintenance agreements.

Zoning, Land Use and Environmental Law

Local Permits and Approvals. Mr. Sweeney has extensive experience assisting clients obtain local permits, approvals and variances and navigating through the environmental review process under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) in New York, and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and as well as other states' review acts. Mr. Sweeney has also guided developers of both large, controversial projects as well as smaller local projects to establish or grow local businesses. Representative projects include numerous commercial/retail businesses, cellular communication facilities, wind farms and solar energy projects. He has successfully secured right to build approvals for over 40 cellular facilities, 800 MW of wind energy and over 50 MW of solar energy projects throughout New York as well as site plan approvals or special permits and/or variances for auto retailers, restaurants, banks and convenience stores. Mr. Sweeney has advised local planning and zoning boards on the various projects that come before them as well as projects undertaken by municipalities to ensure compliance with SEQRA and local zoning requirements.

Environmental Permitting. Mr. Sweeney has assisted numerous clients in obtaining necessary regulatory permits from the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (“Department”), the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Such permits include permits for stream crossings, wetlands disturbance, Incidental Take of Threatened or Endangered Species, and mining. NYSDEC guidelines on noise and visual assessments for various projects as well consultations with the NYS Historic Preservation Office are areas Mr. Sweeney has also advised clients regarding to obtain the necessary permits from the Department and has experience regarding the state permitting process including representing clients in issues conferences related to the permit review process.

Environmental Enforcement. Mr. Sweeney has assisted clients facing enforcement of environmental laws and regulations relating to hazardous substances and petroleum products by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Managing responses to document requests from the Department, site visits by Environmental Conservation Officers and negotiating and drafting Consent Orders has enabled Mr. Sweeney to help clients come into compliance with relevant environmental laws and avoid unnecessary or excessive fines and penalties. As such, clients can focus expenditures on resolving the environmental issue and carrying on with business.

Real Estate

Mr. Sweeney has experience in both commercial and residential real estate matters. Whether a closing on a home or more complex real estate agreements and issues, Mark’s experience leaves him well suited to assist clients' real estate needs. He has drafted and negotiated various real estate agreements including leases, easements, option contracts and purchase and sale contracts.

Litigation

Mr. Sweeney has years of experience handling Article 78 litigation defending permits and approvals for renewable energy projects as well as prosecuting cases challenging the denial of approvals by municipal boards and state agencies. These matters also relate to challenges to legislation, challenges to environmental reviews and public service commission decisions as well as challenges brought on behalf of clients against permits issued to other projects. Mark also has significant experience in litigating insurance related cases involving personal injury, property damage and arson.

II. Experience Examples

Counsel to Various Solar Developers

Mr. Sweeney served as counsel to several major solar developers in addition to Greenwood, including Borrego Solar, Onyx Renewable Partners, Solar City/Tesla Energy, Community Energy Solar, Salt Energy Group, Monolith Solar, and High Peaks Solar. In this capacity, Mr. Sweeney has assisted clients in securing approvals for dozens of solar projects across New York totaling over 50 MW of solar energy.

These projects, developed under the NY-Sun program, often involved one or more 2 MW projects located directly adjacent to secure economies of scale, were located in various utility territories and NYISO load zones including the towns of Lisbon (St. Lawrence County), Oppenheim and Johnstown (Fulton County), Seneca (Ontario County), Duanesburg (Schenectady County), Sharon (Schoharie County), Amsterdam (Montgomery County), Brunswick (Rensselaer County), Minisink and Crawford (Orange County).

For these projects, Mr. Sweeney provided a full range of services for permitting, real property tax matters and landowner real estate disputes. As these projects included a mix of net-metered projects and community distributed generation projects under fast evolving regulatory schemes, he also worked with DPS Staff, NYSERDA representatives and utility counsel and DG representatives to resolve issues pertaining to grandfather status, separate system requirements and others without the need for expensive, costly and time-consuming formal proceedings before the Commission.

Counsel to NYSERDA on Development of the Municipal Solar Tool Kit
Mr. Sweeney served as counsel to NYSERDA assisting the agency in the preparation of its Municipal Solar Tool Kit including drafting of the Solar Model Law, assisting NYSERDA staff with the development of policies regarding the assessment and proper valuation of solar projects for real property tax calculations and for PILOT agreement purposes and in drafting the model PILOT Agreement and local law authorizing municipalities to enter into such agreements.

36 Turbine 100.5 MW Wind Energy Facility in Chautauqua County, New York

Mr. Sweeney served as counsel for several developers pursuing the Ball Hill Wind Energy Project including Noble Environmental Power, Duke Energy Renewables, and RES Americas. Mr. Sweeney guided the project sponsors and municipalities through an eight-year complex SEQRA review (which included multiple Environmental Impact Statements and findings supporting the decision to approve the project), assisted in applying for and securing necessary state permits including wetlands and Incidental Take Permits under the Endangered Species Act from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Mr. Sweeney also advised project sponsors on the applicability of NYS Public Service Law Article X to the continued review of the proposed wind project and acted as co-counsel before the NYS Public Service Commission on these issues. He successfully negotiated Host Community Agreements which included impact payments, road protection and post-construction mitigation measures to be observed over the life of the project.

84 Turbine 126 MW Wind Energy Facility in Wyoming County, New York
Mr. Sweeney represented Noble Environmental Power in its development of this large wind energy project through the local, state and federal regulatory processes. This project involved the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement under SEQRA, an Article VII review of the transmission line to tie into the electrical grid and securing wetland and related permits from the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Mr. Sweeney also acted as the principal attorney for due diligence necessary for the issuance of a legal opinion on the securing of all necessary permits and approvals in connection with the financing of this $100 million project. Finally, Mr. Sweeney worked with Noble’s in-house counsel to develop and present a compliance program to the company’s construction personnel to ensure construction was undertaken consistent with all mitigation measures and permit conditions.

Representation Before NYS Public Service Commission
Mr. Sweeney represented Globe Metallurgical, Inc. in connection with changes in its allocation of low-cost hydroelectric power before the commission (Case No. 16-E-0413). Mr. Sweeney drafted the petition, interfaced with DPS Staff and assisted in the negotiation of a resolution to the concerns of Globe. Mr. Sweeney also assisted in the development and implementation of a strategy for RES Americas to confirm the grandfathered status of the Ball Hill Wind Energy project excepting it from review under PSL Article X (Case No. 16-F-0289). In addition, Mr. Sweeney assisted clients in resolving case-by-case and global solutions to the separate system requirements under PSL Section 66-j by coordination discussions with DPS and NYSERDA Staff and utility representatives to facilitate construction and financing of multiple solar energy projects. Mr. Sweeney also represents clients in the VDER proceeding (Case No, 14-E-0751) in connection with the application of interzonal crediting for projects with the different utility territories but within the same NYISO load zone.

Counsel to National Developers of Cellular Communications Facilities
Mr. Sweeney assisted clients with the build out of cellular communications networks involving the permitting of dozens of sites throughout New York. Notable projects include a ±105’ tall stealth silo in the City of Saratoga Springs housing numerous carriers in close proximity to the Saratoga Race Course and Saratoga National Golf Course. Mr. Sweeney worked closely with his clients and the City’s planning and economic development staff to navigate a complex and controversial year-long review process to successfully secure the permits and approvals for this unique site within a sensitive viewshed. Others include numerous towers in the Catskills, near Lake George and along interstate highways and major state roads to ensure developers meet the requirements to provide safe and adequate coverage in its license area.

Counsel on PILOT Negotiations for 12 MWs of Solar Energy in Fulton County
Mr. Sweeney represented a solar developer in connection with six (6) solar energy sites in Fulton County for the negotiation and drafting of PILOT agreements for each site. For two (2) of the sites, the procedures of RPTL Section 487 were not followed enabling the developer to claim an exemption from Real Property taxes for a period of 15 years. County attempts to compel entry into a PILOT at the same value as the other sites were successfully rebuffed based on this analysis of RPTL 487.

Pro Bono Counsel on Development of Indoor/Outdoor Soccer Facility in Bethlehem, New York
While president of the Bethlehem Soccer Club, Mr. Sweeney organized and led a dedicated group of volunteers from the legal, financial, engineering and other industries to develop a club owned and operated indoor/outdoor soccer facility including a full-sized indoor soccer/multi-sport facility to promote the love of soccer, development of healthy life habits and sportsmanship. Mr. Sweeney led this talented group to analyze the legal, land use, and financial risks and benefits of the project and worked closely with the Town of Bethlehem to evaluate and plan this ambitious proposal. Ultimately, the Club determined to partner with Afrim Sports, Inc who constructed and operates the indoor facility. This state-of-the-art facility benefits not only local soccer players but many other young athletes from across the Capital Region in a variety of sports including soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, football and baseball. After his tenure as Club President, Mr. Sweeney represented the Club in the negotiation of a ground lease with Afrim Sports and represented the Club and Afrim Sports to secure the right-to-build approvals from the Town of Bethlehem, NYSDEC and US Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Sweeney performed all of this work on a pro bono basis. The facility opened in 2015 and operates today in Glenmont.

Counsel to Owner of Auto Sales/Repair Facility
Mr. Sweeney assisted a business owner secure the permits and variances necessary to re-develop an existing run-down bus garage to accommodate a new auto sales and repair facility. Mark helped his client navigate through the review process against local opposition to achieve his goals and open his business.

Counsel to Restaurant Owner and Developer
Mr. Sweeney assisted a client to secure the necessary local approvals to redevelop several properties to develop a small commercial retail facility and expand an established restaurant to allow the business to host events, wedding receptions and the like. This necessitated securing a zone change and other approvals from various boards within the town. Mr. Sweeney also successfully defeated a challenge to the permits issued by the town in an Article 78 proceeding.