Rules would eliminate wind farm

CLAYTON - Iberdrola Renewables told town officials the recommendations from the town's wind committee would effectively eliminate Horse Creek Wind Farm.

At the Town Council's meeting Wednesday night, the council, Planning Board and committee discussed the committee's recommendations.

Jenny L. Burke, business developer for Iberdrola, referred to a map on which the recommended setbacks of 31/2 times the turbine height from public roads and nonparticipating residents' property lines were shown.

"As you can see, we can put four turbines in, according to this layout," she said. "There's not a lot of room left in the overlay district to reconfigure."

Iberdrola has proposed 54 turbines for Clayton and an additional eight for Orleans.

The map did not account for noise requirements or the possibility of neighbors waiving the setback or noise requirements.

"You may need to go and reach out to those people," Planning Board Chairman Roland A. "Bud" Baril said. "Our responsibility is to create as much safety for our community as possible."

Planning Board member Ronald N. Duford Sr. asked the committee, "When we're looking at the number that would be eliminated and that would eliminate the farm, what restrictions would you look at loosening up?"

Most of the members of the committee defended their recommendations.

"We looked at this long and hard," Dr. John W. Jepma said. "We were charged with looking at science, not emotion. I wouldn't change any of our recommendations."

But member Patricia A. Patchen said she wasn't all for the recommendations.

"I was in disagreement with a lot of what the committee did," she said.

She cited a recommendation that shadow flicker not be allowed at intersections and the setbacks from roads, saying there have been very few injuries from ice or blade throw.

Ms. Burke said the developer is still working through the state environmental quality review process.

"We are actually prepared to move SEQR forward if the zoning changes here allow it," Ms. Burke said.

She clarified after the meeting that Iberdrola would have to know what the zoning law would be before submitting a supplemental draft environmental impact statement and working on a biological assessment of Indiana bats, which would allow an accidental kill permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Iberdrola representatives also said the noise requirement would make enforcement difficult.

"A relative standard could not be monitored," said Iberdrola's East Coast permits manager, Kristen Goland. "Essentially there's no way to enforce that without a 24-7 sound monitoring system."

Committee member Thomas M. Brennan said, "After the preconstruction studies, you'll have ambient numbers that have been established. At the end of the project, why can't you follow that?"

Iberdrola sent a letter to the town, dated May 20, on its thoughts on the committee's recommendations. In that letter, the developer said, "Background levels change every minute of the day and vary substantially within each day or season."

Committee members said several conversations with and multiple papers from acoustic engineers promoted using requirements relative to background noise.

Dr. Jepma asked whether the committee would have time to collect information to respond to Iberdrola's letter.

"They kind of countered our recommendations," he said. "I would like to be able to comment on those."

Supervisor Justin A. Taylor said revising the town law for wind development is still a few steps away.

He said the council will digest the committee's recommendations and wait for recommendations from a second ad hoc committee considering rules for private renewable energy development, including small wind projects and solar panels.

"My desire is to do it all at once," he said.