Local laws prevent windmills in N.J., environmentalists say
Courier Post|Tom Baldwin|September 27, 2008
The minty ring of "live green" can look easy. But it's about more than recycling and taking one's tote bag to the grocer's. Trying to live green in New Jersey collides, environmentalists said Friday, with a warren of real-world twists and turns that make it harder than it looks.
The minty ring of "live green" can look easy. But it's about more than recycling and taking one's tote bag to the grocer's. Trying to live green in New Jersey collides, environmentalists said Friday, with a warren of real-world twists and turns that make it harder than it looks.
The minty ring of "live green" can look easy. But it's about more than recycling and taking one's tote bag to the grocer's.
Trying to live green in New Jersey collides, environmentalists said Friday, with a warren of real-world twists and turns that make it harder than it looks.
Take sea-swept Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island. Renewable energy stock, such as windmills, are banned there.
Or think about the car-wash owner on Hamburg Pike in Wayne who was told by then-Mayor Scott Rumana a windmill there -- against a backdrop of strip malls and by-the-highway retailers -- might skew local aesthetics or be noisily unsafe.
"Propellers in an area where you are near a residential area can be an issue," said Rumana, a Republican …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]The minty ring of "live green" can look easy. But it's about more than recycling and taking one's tote bag to the grocer's.
Trying to live green in New Jersey collides, environmentalists said Friday, with a warren of real-world twists and turns that make it harder than it looks.
Take sea-swept Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island. Renewable energy stock, such as windmills, are banned there.
Or think about the car-wash owner on Hamburg Pike in Wayne who was told by then-Mayor Scott Rumana a windmill there -- against a backdrop of strip malls and by-the-highway retailers -- might skew local aesthetics or be noisily unsafe.
"Propellers in an area where you are near a residential area can be an issue," said Rumana, a Republican now in the state Assembly.
The problem, said the Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel, is the state's 566 municipalities all have their own local ordinances, most dating to well before the environmental movement came to Main Street.
Mike Pisauro, legislative director for the New Jersey Environmental Lobby, asked if there are no setback requirements for flag poles, why do they exist for windmills?
Tittel and others are pushing a list of potential new laws that they said could untangle some of the knots.
One would make windmills "inherently beneficial" in he eyes of the law.
Another forces builders to offer solar systems if customers ask. Another protects roof warranties if solar systems go up.
The package has more than a dozen potential new laws.