Planning a battery farm? Many towns just slammed on the brakes.

Utility-scale energy storage is racing ahead, but local permitting is tapping the brakes. Oshtemo Township, Michigan, just enacted a one-year moratorium after a developer scouted the area for a large lithium-ion project. Communities are asking pointed questions about fire risk, emergency response, siting, noise, and end-of-life plans. The good news: there is a clear playbook to earn trust and keep projects on track.

Why towns are hitting pause

In late November 2025, Oshtemo Township approved a one-year moratorium on commercial battery energy storage systems to give staff time to craft safety-forward local rules and consult independent experts. The move followed public meetings and concerns raised after a utility-scale developer sized up the township for a BESS site, with officials noting current zoning did not explicitly allow the use. See local reporting and township documents for details in WWMT, WKZO, and Oshtemo’s own media release and agenda packet. A broader industry lens from Energy-Storage.news underscores how local moratoriums are spreading as deployment accelerates.

Oshtemo is not an outlier. As communities encounter first-of-a-kind projects, questions pile up: Can thermal runaway be contained? Who pays for specialized firefighter training? What about setbacks, sound from HVAC and inverters, and battery recycling or decommissioning? Planning guidance now recommends addressing BESS explicitly in zoning and permitting, defining districts, accessory uses, and conditions that tie approvals to national safety standards, as noted in this planning analysis.

What the safety standards already cover

Developers do not have to reinvent safety. Modern codes and standards provide a thorough framework:

• NFPA 855 sets requirements for installation, separation distances, fire protection, gas detection, ventilation, and emergency response planning for stationary energy storage systems. Many local ordinances and big-city rules align to it, including New York City’s comprehensive ESS requirements, as outlined on the NYC Buildings ESS page and in permitting guides like this 2025 update.
• UL9540A thermal runaway testing evaluates whether fire propagates at the cell, module, unit, and installation levels. Jurisdictions increasingly expect installation-level large-scale fire testing to validate containment and suppression strategies, a trend discussed in regional permitting resources such as this briefing.
• Local permitting frameworks bundle design, filing, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning requirements. NYC’s model highlights registration, roof access and spacing, and clear responsibilities for owners and managers, per the rulemaking docket and city code resources.

A practical pre-permit playbook to build trust

Here is a checklist you can use before submitting a permit. It makes fire departments and neighbors more comfortable, and it gets developers out of the moratorium penalty box.

• Start with the AHJ and fire department: Pre-application meetings to align on NFPA 855 scope, hazard mitigation analysis, and site-specific separation distances. Bring draft site plans and an outline of detection, suppression, and ventilation strategies. See permitting best practices in this planning guidance and the NY ESS permitting guide.
• Provide UL9540A reports, up to installation-level tests: Summarize results for cell, module, unit, and large-scale installation fire tests, highlighting no-propagation findings and off-gas characterization where applicable. Jurisdictions often request installation-level validation for utility-scale sites, as discussed in this briefing.
• Design for firefighter operations: Document access lanes, clearances, shutoffs, signage, and water supply planning. Include detection, gas monitoring, and remote telemetry. NYC’s requirements provide a useful template, per the ESS code page.
• Noise and siting: Model expected dBA at property lines, specify quiet-hours strategies, and commit to setbacks and screening. Treat batteries as principal or accessory uses per local zoning, and clarify where they are permitted or conditional, as noted in this analysis.
• Community protections and transparency: Host open houses with the fire department, publish easy-to-read emergency response summaries, and share third-party safety attestations. Reference national standards and your UL9540A results to ground the discussion.
• End-of-life: File a decommissioning plan with financial assurance, recycling pathways, and site restoration commitments. Many communities expect these conditions, per planning practice and state-level permitting guides like this one.
• Compliance and reporting: Commit to ongoing inspections, incident reporting, and registration where required. NYC’s framework is a useful model for clearly defined owner responsibilities, as shown on the ESS page.

Zooming out: storage is scaling fast

BESS deployment is surging across the US, and permitting delays quickly ripple through grid reliability plans. Industry groups forecast continued growth through 2025 as renewables expand and markets value flexibility, per trends summarized in NY-BEST’s State of Charge. Policymakers are also revisiting local approval pathways. For example, a New York bill would require public referendums for certain BESS siting decisions, signaling how community consent is becoming central to project delivery, as noted in this proposed legislation.

The bottom line

Moratoriums are a symptom, not the diagnosis. Developers who lead with NFPA 855 compliance, transparent UL9540A testing, and a thoughtful siting and end-of-life plan can turn skepticism into support. Do the homework before you hit submit, and those grid batteries will move from pause to play.