The board recommended rejecting the battery ban and writing real rules instead. Ordinance 9884 would prohibit battery energy storage systems anywhere in Rome. The board had held a public hearing on it in July but couldn't vote then for lack of a quorum. This time it acted, voting unanimously to recommend the Common Council reject the ban and instead create a comprehensive code governing these systems. Before the vote, Chairman Mark Esposito read a prepared statement into the record and agreed to forward it to the council. He said he was not arguing the facilities are risk-free or that every project should be approved, and listed concerns he considers legitimate: fire safety, emergency response, setbacks, noise, security, visual impacts, and whether a facility fits its surroundings. His argument was that those concerns are better handled through regulation. He pointed to how the city already handles other uses that draw community concern, like adult entertainment establishments, meat processing facilities, and solar projects, none of which Rome banned outright, choosing instead to set requirements that limit their impacts.

The chairman's statement also looked ahead to data centers. Esposito argued that a ban treats every battery project identically, drawing no distinction between one next to homes and one in an industrial area with large setbacks, or between different sizes, technologies, and safety systems, while a detailed code would let the city make exactly those distinctions. He said such a code could address zoning districts and locations, minimum setbacks, site access, fencing and security, noise, landscaping and screening, fire protection, emergency response planning, inspection and maintenance, monitoring, and decommissioning. He then raised a broader point, saying technology keeps changing, and data centers are another new use the city code doesn't currently cover. They come with their own concerns about electricity demand, cooling-system noise, water use, backup generators, traffic, and strain on infrastructure. If Rome's answer to every unfamiliar technology is to prohibit it because the code doesn't address it, he said, the city will keep ending up in the same spot. He added that clear standards give everyone predictability and noted that a code could also let the city address extraordinary demands a project places on infrastructure rather than passing those costs to existing taxpayers.

The 190-foot cell tower was approved after months on the table. Tarpon Towers III and Verizon have been seeking approval since May for a 190-foot telecommunications tower at 6507 Lowell Road (State Route 26), and the board had kept the item tabled while an outside engineering firm reviewed it. A representative for Verizon told the board the company had since submitted the three items previously requested, which include a letter from the fire department, a sound study, and a study for the Federal Aviation Administration. The city hired Colliers Engineering and Design to perform the independent review, and its engineer walked the board through a memo dated August 4. The review turned up no fundamental issues, but did list corrections. Staff noted the 30-day state environmental comment window had closed with no agency raising substantial concerns. The board issued a negative declaration (the finding of no significant environmental impact) and approved the site plan on the condition that the engineering comments be addressed before the final site plan or building permit.

The battery project at 600 Canal Street stayed on the table. The environmental review and site plan for a roughly 4.97-megawatt battery energy storage system proposed by Demeter Land Holdings, LLC at 600 Canal Street remained tabled, where they have been since July.

A credit union's plan for a second Rome branch was heard but not voted on. First Source Federal Credit Union is asking to split a 10.51-acre shopping center property at 5781 Rome-Taberg Road into two lots, carving out a roughly 1.7-acre parcel with about 265 feet of road frontage. The credit union already has a Rome branch on Black River Boulevard and wants to build a second one here. The board opened and closed the public hearing, and no one spoke. But because a board member had to recuse from the item the environmental review and the subdivision decision were tabled to the September 1 meeting. Chairman Esposito invited the applicant's representative, Byron W. Elias of Foresite Realty Advisors, to present anyway so the project would be ready to act on next month. Elias explained the request covers only the lot split; any construction would come back to the board later for its own site plan and environmental review.

Both the applicant and city staff warned again about scam invoices. Elias told the board he and a colleague had each received fraudulent demands for a $10,000 wire transfer tied to the application, and that he reported it to Rome police rather than paying. City planning staff said several applicants have reported similar attempts, that police are aware, and that the city has added a warning to the top of its application forms advising people not to send wire transfers. Official digital communications from the city come only from addresses ending in @romeny.gov.

Two homeowners got the go-ahead to remove unused chimneys. Because Rome has a designated historic district, certain exterior changes come to the board for a recommendation before the city acts. A resident at 1004 N. George Street asked to remove a deteriorating 10-to-15-foot brick chimney from the north side of his 1910 Tudor revival home. The chimney is no longer in use and he said it has shifted in past storms and needs immediate attention. It will be taken down to just below the roofline and shingled over, leaving the roofline and front of the house unchanged. The residents at 502 N. George Street asked to remove a second, nonfunctional chimney at the back of their roughly 1890 home as part of a full roof replacement. Their family has owned the house for about 70 years. The existing roof is part slate and part asphalt shingle, and because of the building's age the whole roof will need to be sheathed in board before new architectural shingles rated for 130 mph winds go on. The home's primary chimney, which vents the furnace and water heater, stays. The board recommended approval of both projects unanimously.