The board asked the Planniong Board to draw up an ordinance after the board was asked to consider whether to allow Mapleton Road resident Thomas Izard to erect a 100-foot tower with a wind turbine on top.
This sudden political wind shift has its roots in local citizen opposition based on concerns about noise, visual blight and environmental issues. It also springs from fears the state could usurp town authority ...But at the bottom of it all is a sense of unease over any project that seems, well, just way too big, too complicated or too difficult to control.
Catlin officials had been close to enacting new regulations limiting where the turbines - which would be 430 feet tall - could be located.
However, the town is now moving toward an outright ban instead, said Catlin Town Supervisor Laverne Phelps.
Joseph Calderone, who is mounting a write-in campaign for town supervisor, said, “The wind turbine law doesn’t meet the smell test economically, scientifically, politically and, most importantly, personally. Of the two town halls (meetings) I have attended, not one person has walked up to the microphone and extolled the virtues of wind, the law or the town’s plans for the community.”
Allegany residents were assured by the Allegany Town Board at Tuesday’s meeting that the board is reviewing a recommendation to rescind the wind energy overlay district in the Chipmonk Road area.
The Ulster County Planning Department has recommended the town update its zoning before granting permission to actor Judd Hirsch to build a 176-foot-high wind turbine on his Yeagerville Road property. ...Because Denning’s zoning law does not mention wind turbines, they could be used either in all or none of the town.
Councilor Nancy Montgomery said she senses “the region is wanting to embrace this clean energy. But we have to make sure we can deal with all the challenges we’re going to have to face.” The town must devise a policy and “this is a good way to do it, so we do it right,” she said.
Re-elected Tuesday as Richfield Town Supervisor, Fran Enjem said Friday that he has serious reservations with an agreement offered by the developers of a planned wind farm project, saying it fails to adequately protect his community. Enjem’s resistance to the host agreement is one of two last remaining obstacles facing the Monticello Hills wind farm.
“BP has had our town twisting in the winds of uncertainty since 2006. Please try to provide us with some relief by insisting that an applicant presuming to be moving forward under Article X not be permitted to circle over a town indefinitely,” town officials said in their letter Friday. BP Wind Energy has become increasingly uncommunicative.
"Wind turbines are an allowable use under the new zoning" code adopted in 2011, Dee observed in opening the hearing. However, after adoption of the code, "there were a lot of questions raised." He said the Town Board intends to revisit the issue and update the zoning law as needed, a view echoed by Town Board Member John Van Tassel, liaison to the ZBA.
The law, which states that large wind energy facilities could not be constructed within town limits, would allow for structures upward of 85 feet tall on parcels of two acres, and 5-acre plots could get a 120-feet-tall turbine.
The Richfield Town Planning Board, for the second time in two years, voted Monday night to permit the six-turbine Monticello Hills wind farm to be constructed on the western edge of the town - but the validity of the vote was immediately questioned by Town Supervisor Fran Enjem.
The town of Madison is about halfway through the process of creating a new windmill law. Analysis of the work of a committee that re-tooled an existing windpower facilities law was conducted in February. Since then, the plan has been reviewed by the town planning board.
The appeal of the Herkimer County Supreme Court's ruling upholding the Town of Litchfield's ban on industrial wind turbines has been withdrawn. That means the lawsuit against the town is over and the town's law banning industrial wind turbines stands.
The Town Board voted Tuesday night to impose a 128-day moratorium on applications and permits for wind turbines. The delay is designed to provide the town time to establish regulations on several aspects, including noise, size, height, zoning and use.
Revisions to Pomfret's 2007 local law regarding non-commercial small wind towers are under way. Wind energy conversion systems, or WECS, were a topic of discussion at a recent town board workshop meeting.
Before the appearance of rooftop windmills and front yard solar panels affects the views in Poughkeepsie, the Town Board wants to call a timeout on their installation. The proposed eight-month moratorium will give the board time to study how best to regulate the green power energy equipment.
Top Iberdrola executives seemed largely ignorant of American regulatory requirements. Auditors said they must "adjust more to business culture here, as opposed to expect U.S. stakeholders to accommodate themselves to Spanish custom and practice." Top executives wouldn't answer auditors' questions, wouldn't allow board members to be interviewed and argued against disclosing information, making arguments that auditors described as "invalid" and "very peculiar."
Grounded on a recent survey that found that a majority of Lyme residents were against wind energy development, the proposed law requires a half-mile turbine setback from roads, town boundaries and from non-participating property lines.