FRAMINGHAM - After two years of talk, Town Meeting is poised to vote on a proposal that would allow residents, businesses and the town itself to harness wind power.

Currently, the town does not have a wind turbine bylaw, and people are lining up on both sides of the new proposal.

Free-standing turbines would be allowed in two manufacturing zones and in the Technology Park if Article 25 of this spring's Annual Town Meeting warrant passes. Windmills would be allowed elsewhere in the town, but only if put up on top of an existing building.

The freestanding windmills would top out at 250 feet, according to the proposed bylaw, and be set back from the nearest property line by at least 150 percent of the structure's height.

Under the proposal, noise coming from the structures must not exceed 10 decibels above the ambient noise level.

Residents can take advantage of any wind power on their properties under the proposal, so long as the structures are on top of their roofs and not freestanding and conform to existing height and setback standards.

The town can also take advantage of wind turbines as the proposal allows for them to be built on town-owned property so long as it benefits town buildings or operations.

Applicants would have to go through a special permitting process to get the go-ahead from the Planning Board for a turbine.

Selectman Dennis Giombetti, who served on the committee that drafted the bylaw, thinks the proposal would "serve this town very well."

Not everyone likes the proposal, however.

Town Meeting member Yaakov Cohn, who served on the wind turbine bylaw committee, called the proposal poorly written, weak and sloppy.

He is also concerned about noise.

"There's no mechanism to measure noise," Cohn told selectmen last week.

But Dawn Harkness, chairwoman of the Greener Framingham Committee, said wind turbines "make less noise than a flag in the wind, a pool pump, a breeze whistling through tree branches."

Another member of the bylaw committee, meanwhile, was concerned the residential turbines would be neighborhood eyesores.

"My real concern is I don't want those damn things on everyone's homes. They look like hell," said Town Meeting member Tom O'Neil. "I don't think the town is going to be happy with it."

To which Harkness said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

O'Neil and Cohn were the dissenting votes on the bylaw committee, which was opposed to the bylaw.

Town Meeting has considered a wind turbine bylaw before.

Last spring, Town Meeting shot down a wind turbine bylaw that O'Neil and Cohn supported, with critics saying the measure was confusing and too inflexible.

Some suggested the parameters were so numerous and stringent that the proposal would essentially disallow any turbines from getting installed.

Harkness hopes this year different results will emerge.

"It's time for us to pass something," she said.

Town Meeting is scheduled to start April 28.

Holliston and Hopkinton are also considering wind turbine bylaws this spring.