Wind & Solar Leasing in Madison County, NY: Hoffman Falls

Madison County's most active land-use story right now isn't a zoning dispute -- it's the Hoffman Falls Wind Project, an 18-turbine facility across four towns that has already cleared state permitting and is now the subject of a very live, very public fight over how much local tax revenue it should pay.

This page covers what's specific to Madison County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

The project has a final state permit -- at 18 turbines, not the original 24

The Hoffman Falls Wind Project, developed by Liberty Renewables, is a wind energy facility sited across the Madison County towns of Fenner, Nelson, Eaton, and Smithfield. New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) issued the project's final permit on December 22, 2025, authorizing construction and operation of 18 turbines, each roughly 643 feet tall -- down from the 24 turbines originally proposed. That reduction reflects the kind of scaling-back that can happen during ORES review as a project moves from initial proposal to final permit, and is worth knowing if you encountered earlier reporting or marketing describing a 24-turbine project: the built (or soon-to-be-built) footprint is smaller than the original plan.

As with the ORES process generally -- covered in full mechanical detail on this project's Lewis County wind-solar-leasing page, which applies the same way here -- this state permit supersedes local town and county zoning review for the qualifying project. The Madison County Board of Supervisors had earlier raised public-safety concerns specifically about turbine setback distances; those concerns were part of the public record during ORES review but did not give the county a veto over the state's final permitting decision.

The real live fight now: a $30.4 million, 20-year PILOT request

With the ORES permit in hand, the project's next major hurdle has shifted from siting to taxation. Hoffman Falls Wind, LLC has requested a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement from the Madison County Industrial Development Agency (MCIDA) worth more than $30.4 million in property tax exemptions over a 20-year term. The Madison County Industrial Development Agency hosted four public hearings on the request in August 2026, drawing packed crowds and significant public debate over whether the deal adequately compensates the county, the affected towns, and local school districts for hosting the project.

In August 2026, the Madison County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution formally requesting that the MCIDA deny the PILOT as proposed, arguing the requested exemption's returns are disproportionate to the project's long-term economic benefit to county taxpayers -- pointing specifically to the fact that the project, despite its scale and the $63 million in investment and roughly 70 construction jobs Liberty Renewables has touted, is expected to create only about two permanent, ongoing jobs once built. This is a genuinely different kind of local leverage point than the state-preemption-of-zoning story that dominates Lewis County's wind fact pattern: Madison County's Board can't block the turbines from being built, but it does have a real, live voice in the separate IDA process that sets how much the project actually pays in local taxes over its operating life -- and it has used that voice publicly and specifically.

What this means if you're evaluating land near Fenner, Nelson, Eaton, or Smithfield

If you're looking at a parcel in or near any of the four host towns, treat the ORES permit as final for siting purposes -- the project is not going back through local zoning review -- but treat the PILOT/tax question as genuinely unresolved and worth tracking directly with the MCIDA and the county Board of Supervisors before assuming what the project's actual local tax contribution will be. A resolved PILOT fight can also signal how contentious future renewable projects in the same towns are likely to be, which is relevant background if you're evaluating land specifically because of, or in spite of, its proximity to Hoffman Falls.

For the underlying mechanics -- what an individual landowner wind lease typically involves, how to check for a recorded easement or transmission right-of-way on a specific parcel, and the general due-diligence checklist for buying near any New York wind project sited through ORES -- see this project's Lewis County wind-solar-leasing page, which develops that content in full and applies identically to Madison County's Hoffman Falls project.

Wind & Solar Leasing in Madison County, New York: The Hoffman Falls Wind Project

The project has a final state permit -- at 18 turbines, not the original 24

The real live fight now: a $30.4 million, 20-year PILOT request

What this means if you're evaluating land near Fenner, Nelson, Eaton, or Smithfield

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