SAVOY WIND TURBINE ZONING BY-LAW PROPOSED
Thursday, September 21, 2006
For the past 2 years (or more), the Savoy Planning Board has been in a time consuming and tedious process of developing a Commercial Wind Energy Facility Turbine zoning by-law for the town. We began this effort shortly before the announcement of the West Hill Commercial Wind turbine project by Minuteman Wind. The purpose of the by-law is to provide guidelines for future commercial wind turbine projects that will strike a balance between prospective wind developer’s plans and the concerns of affected residents in the town.
As Planning Board members with no hidden agendas, we have been and will actively be attempting to determine the opinions of the majority of town residents before finalizing the by-law and presenting it to the town. In the summer of 2004, we mailed a questionnaire to all town residents to solicit opinions on possible wind turbine projects. Of the 48 that were returned, 40 were in favor and 8 were opposed to wind projects. Despite the low number of returns, this is all we had to go by. It should also be noted that in 2000 when the Planning Board suggested a By-law to prohibit commercial wind projects until it could further research the subject, the town rejected this.
However, as the current wind project proposed for West Hill looms in our future, it is becoming quite evident that some of the town’s residents are violently opposed to any commercial wind projects in this town. At a special meeting sponsored by Minuteman Wind (developers for the West Hill Project) held on Thursday, September 14th at the Savoy fire station, residents voiced their concerns over safety, noise, aesthetics, visual impacts, property value devaluation and other issues. Although Minuteman Wind representatives did their best to address these concerns, it was quite obvious that many of those present were not satisfied with the answers.
It is too bad that the apparent majority (at least from the results of our survey) did not speak up at the meeting. They were the ones who listened - respectfully and courteously, I might add - to Minuteman's presentation.I have received numerous mailings at my home (some signed and some anonymous) that have all been opposed to this project. If there are Savoy residents who are in favor of these projects, then I suggest they make their voices heard soon before we finalize the new by-law. Our Planning Board meetings are open to the public, and it would assist us in our work if we could hear, in a courteous manner, from both opponents and proponents on the topic.
Tom Sadin – member of the Savoy Planning Board
