Berkshire guidelines provide a blueprint for siting land-based wind turbines.

As more and more Cape towns explore the possibility of building wind turbines to power municipal facilities, town and regional leaders should carefully study an impressive plan developed by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.

"The Wind Power Policy Siting Guidelines," approved by the commission in September 2004, helps communities avoid many of the pitfalls encountered by towns as they rush toward building wind turbines.

The Berkshire effort should also prompt the Cape Cod Commission to develop a similar policy.

The Berkshire plan recognizes what many developers choose to ignore in their pursuit of higher profit margins: that some sites are more appropriate than others.

According to the Berkshire commission, the most appropriate sites:

* Avoid fragmentation of forest and wetland resources;
* Avoid rare or endangered species habitat and avian migratory routes;
* Avoid significant impact on important cultural features. Two "viewsheds" should be mapped, showing from where the hub of the tower and the top of the blade can be seen. "Important cultural locations, such as Tanglewood, Shakespeare & Company, and Hancock Shaker Village, should be located on the map to determine if they will be affected by the visibility of the turbine development," the policy states.

"While it is unlikely that any site will be able to fully meet every one of these siting criteria, those that have limited impacts on some or very few impacts overall are more appropriate," the policy states.

The Berkshire guidelines also offer recommendations to town officials. They include:

* Provide a public process to determine their residents' level of interest in hosting wind energy projects;
* Develop protective local regulations regarding wind energy facilities. "They should include a requirement that the applicant pay for municipal consultants to assist the municipality in evaluating the positive and negative impacts of a proposed project and establishing beneficial agreements for municipal revenue generation. The community should be able to determine that a specific application is or is not acceptable."
* Establish a long-term tax agreement between the municipality and the project developer.
* Require the developer to establish a contingency plan to mitigate unforeseen wildlife impacts, such as significant avian or bat kills.
* Perform complete cost-benefit analyses that include development, operating, and decommissioning/removal costs. "Municipalities should consider such projects only after an open, deliberative public process which arrives at general community consensus."
* Prevent, to the extent possible, wind power facilities from dominating views from nearby homes and adjacent communities.

This is the kind of proactive planning that our state and federal governments need to consider to prevent developers from driving the process.

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