The Newry Planning Board is proposing ordinance amendments that would effectively ban the construction of commercial wind power projects in the town.
A public hearing on the proposal will be scheduled in October.
Planners have hammered out changes to the Unified Development Review Ordinance, which gov-erns land use and development, to incorporate wind projects.
Their proposal draws on the work of an ad hoc Regional Wind Power Committee, composed of rep-resentatives from five area towns. That group worked for more than a year to create a document to guide area planning boards in crafting their own wind ordinances.
The committee addressed such issues as noise, blade flicker, safety setbacks and possible road damage from the transport of heavy tower parts. Those topics are included in the Newry plan.
The NPB proposal would limit commercial wind projects to the town’s Resort Development District (Sunday River Ski Resort), which, when combined with other regulations and easements, would mean the only location eligible for such a project would be the top of the Skiway’s Barker Moun-tain.
Newry selectman Chair Jim Largess was a member of the regional committee, and he voiced some concerns about the town plan at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting.
“Basically, we’ve banned wind,” Largess said. “We’re restricting it so much, we’ve said ‘no.’ We don’t know what the technology will look like in 10 years, and we could lose potential tax dollars.”
But, he added, he felt the most important priority was to have an ordinance in place, regardless of his concerns.
Selectman Gary Wight wasn’t as sure. “Why have it if it’s not what you want?” he wondered.
Brooks Morton, chairman of the Planning Board, also attended Monday’s selectmen’s meeting. He and the selectmen agreed the public hearing would be a good forum to discuss all sides of the issue.
The other growth management districts in Newry include General Development (including com-mercial), Rural (with large blocks of forest and land) and Protection (to protect significant natural resources).
Morton said after the meeting that the GDD generally is not a good location for wind projects. “The GD follows the valley floors along the Sunday River Road and Route 26,” he said. “Other areas in town with favorable sites are located on land already in conservation easements, public lands or hiking trails.”
Morton added that industrial wind energy “is so new it’s difficult to find any hard facts to regulate.” The Planning Board, he said, decided that noise was the most measurable regulating factor, and therefore most of the changes of substance were made to the noise section of the UDRO.
He also said he does not personally agree with all the specifics of the proposal.
Disturbance complaints at rental homes
Also on Monday, selectmen briefly discussed their options for addressing recent complaints about noise, parking and fireworks in neighborhoods surrounding large vacation rental homes.
Town Administrator Loretta Powers said people have called to complain about disturbances caused by large parties at the homes, some of which can accommodate dozens of people overnight.
“All we’ve been able to do is tell them to call the police,” she said.
Powers recently contacted John Maloney of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments for advice.
Maloney replied in an e-mail that the town can soon address the fireworks issue with its own ordi-nance. Though currently illegal, consumer fireworks will become legal Jan. 1. The new law, how-ever, allows towns to regulate them locally.
The Newry board had recently declined to consider such an ordinance.
As for parking, Maloney noted the UDRO asks for two spaces per dwelling unit. But from Powers’ description, he said, it appeared the rentals were not “dwelling units,” and therefore should be con-sidered as commercial and subject to site-plan-review requirements.
Powers wondered if Newry made changes to the ordinance to address the rental properties, whether or not the current ones would be grandfathered.
No specific next steps were identified for the near future.
In other business, CEO Dave Bonney reported that work has been completed on the reconstruction of the Paine Bridge on the Branch Road. The work cost approximately $98,000. It was the third in a trio of Branch Road bridges that have been reconstructed in recent years.
http://www.bethelcitizen.com/node/11663/
Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Comment
U.S. Sen Angus King
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
© 2024 Created by Webmaster. Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine