Planning Board
The Rome Planning Board is a five-member volunteer board that reviews how land in the city gets used and built on. If someone wants to put up a new building, split a parcel into smaller lots, change the zoning map, or alter a property in the historic district, the plans land here first. This body also handles the state-required environmental reviews that gauge a project's impact before it moves forward.
On the smaller stuff, like site plans and subdivisions, the board has the final say. On bigger zoning changes, it sends a recommendation to the Common Council, which holds the final vote.
The Stories We Are Following:
Short on time? These are the three Planning Board threads that you need to know about in Rome Right Now.
Battery Storage Is The Planning Board's Current Issue
Battery energy storage systems, which are large banks of lithium-ion batteries that store power for the electric grid, have become the most contested issue before the board. It began when Scott Aaronson, CEO of DLD Energy, bought 600 Canal Street to build one. His is still the only such project the city has received. With almost no rules on the books and residents raising concerns about hard-to-extinguish battery fires, the Common Council asked the board to weigh in. On June 2, it recommended a six-month "moratorium" (a temporary pause on new projects) while the city writes safety standards. It also suggested any application already filed, like Aaronson's, be allowed to keep moving through review.
Since then, the council has ordered the moratorium, making batteries the thing to watch as the city does its due diligence on the systems.
A Building Boom At Griffiss Has The Planning Board Saying Yes To Big Projects
Most of the board's biggest decisions this year have clustered around the Griffiss Business and Technology Park. The anchor is Chobani's roughly $1.2 billion dairy plant on Perimeter Road, one of the largest food-manufacturing investments in the country. The board approved the company's revised site plan in February, and construction is now underway, with the first milk expected in 2027. The board also cleared two new hotels near the Hill and Geiger roads roundabout, and back in January it approved a 102,000-square-foot office building on the site of the base's old parachute shop.
The growth isn't finished. The two hotels still need a height variance from the Zoning Board to build taller than the code allows before they can break ground, expected in late 2026 or early 2027. And at its July 14 meeting, the board is set to rule on a 190-foot Verizon cell tower meant to serve the area, which it put on hold in June pending an independent engineering review.
The Planning Board Is Backing Two Big Housing Projects, But Neither Is Built Yet
Alongside all the commercial growth, the board has been advancing two large housing projects aimed at people who need it most. The first is Copper Village, a roughly 250-unit affordable development planned for the south Rome waterfront geared toward seniors and veterans. First approved in 2024, it returned to the board in June to have that approval renewed for another year while the developer, Pennrose, keeps lining up financing. The second is the Nascentia Neighborhood, a gated community of about 110 homes for residents 55 and older, planned for the former Beeches property on Turin Road. On June 2, the board recommended that the Common Council create a special zoning district for it, so the whole community can be built and reviewed as one project.
Both still have a way to go. The Nascentia district now heads to the Common Council for a final vote before detailed site plans are drawn. And Copper Village isn't expected to break ground until the second half of 2027. Watch for Pennrose to come back for at least one more renewal before then.
