I was at the Garrett County commissioners' June 24 public hearing on performance zoning, which can be used to prohibit industrial wind turbines on county ridgelines. Over two dozen residents spoke, many with raw emotion and obvious frustration over the lack of safeguards against this industry. Coming up with a way of regulating this now effectively unregulated industry should be a high priority with our elected officials. However, I am concerned that no one seems to be looking out for the property rights, health, and safety of those having to live or work next to such developments. ...Performance zoning would safeguard our basic human rights, our property, and our county's natural heritage from these intrusive, landscape-altering wind developments.

I was at the Garrett County commissioners' June 24 public hearing on performance zoning, which can be used to prohibit industrial wind turbines on county ridgelines. Over two dozen residents spoke, many with raw emotion and obvious frustration over the lack of safeguards against this industry. Coming up with a way of regulating this now effectively unregulated industry should be a high priority with our elected officials. However, I am concerned that no one seems to be looking out for the property rights, health, and safety of those having to live or work next to such developments.

For example, Synergics Wind Energy LLC plans to build a 60 MW wind plant on Four Mile Ridge, just above Frostburg Road and near 35 homes. These homeowners, if they choose to stay, will have had no choice in deciding whether they want these large industrial structures, the attendant noise, visual pollution, and loss of property values. In their arrogance, Synergics has already entered into a 20-year contract with Delmarva Power & Light Co. to sell their power there, and the project has not yet been built! There needs to be some way of regulating this industry so that county residents living near a ridgeline are not faced with a future of living with turbines. Residents and visitors alike should not have to see turbines on every privately owned ridgeline in the county.

So, is performance zoning the answer? Here is what I have learned: Performance zoning is different from conventional or Euclidean zoning, which is a system of zoning characterized by the division of land uses into specified areas. In contrast, performance zoning is goal-oriented and requires less administrative involvement, since variances, appeals, and re-zonings are not necessary. It also gives more flexibility, rationality, transparency, and accountability both to the municipality and to the developer, allowing more of a range of land uses, as long as their impact is not negative. Performance zoning can avoid the sometimes-arbitrary nature of the Euclidean approach, and better accommodates market principles and private property rights with environmental protection. Also, performance zoning is more effective in the preservation of natural features, since it evaluates directly the impact, rather than indirectly through listing permitted and denied uses. Performance zoning would safeguard our basic human rights, our property, and our county's natural heritage from these intrusive, landscape-altering wind developments.

 

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