Can We Say NO ?

In a previous post on property value assurance plans there was a discussion by my friend John Richardson on whether we could say NO to wind development. He felt it was not an option. This post is not intended to pick on my friend John in any way. There a number of thoughtful CV citizens who would agree with John.  In my response to his comment I brought up the fact that our planning board actually has, right now, the power and authority in our Planning Board  site plan review purpose language to "deny" a development on certain criteria.  One criterion is the possibility to mitigate a project proposal, whether it is wind turbines or anything else. It clearly states in our Planning Board purpose clause that they apparently do have the power to deny an unmitigatable proposal.  Here is the language from our zoning on page 12.

Section 405 Purpose

“The purpose of the site plan review procedure is to allow the Planning Board to attach safeguards and conditions to those uses which might otherwise produce deleterious effects on the environment, the rural and scenic character of the town, the neighborhood character, or  the Town residents’ health, safety and welfare.

Furthermore it is the purpose of site plan procedure to authorize the Planning Board to disapprove a plan for any use, the deleterious effects of which cannot be mitigated because of the particular conditions of the site it is to occupy.”

(Emphasis is mine)

Now for those of you in CV look across the River at Wolfe Island and decide if at 2 or more miles those wind turbine impacts have been mitigated or could be mitigated.  NOT!!!!

After reading the purpose clause above now read the visual impact statements from the developers EIS studies. These are words verbatim from them…not me, and ask yourself if wind turbines in our town will change the town or neighborhood character, or have deleterious effects on the scenic character of our town.  Let the wind developers tell you themselves below.

BP

Measured from the ground to the tip of an extended blade, each wind turbine would be

up to 420 feet high and visible from numerous locations in the surrounding area.

The height and density of the turbines would make them a focal point and would

change the visual character of the town.

Acciona

The introduction of large, clearly man-made structures creates an obvious disruption of

the planar agricultural landscape. The well-defined vertical form of turbines on the

horizon introduces a contrasting and distinct perpendicular element into the landscape.

The proposed turbines would be the tallest visible elements within view and will be

disproportionate to other elements on the regional landscape. The distribution of turbines across an extended area would result in the proposed Project being perceived as a highly dominant visual element. The moderately paced sweeping rotation of the turbine blades would heighten the conspicuity of the turbines; no matter the degree of visibility.

                                        Wolfe Is. wind turbines from CV Rt 6.  Mitigatable?????

  By our own zoning laws and the PB site plan review language quoted above, and by a comparison to the wind developers visual assessment could the CV PB actually responsibly approve a project like this for CV?

 I would say even the wind developers are telling us their projects are going to dominate the town and are not mitigatable for the site they will occupy.  These statements are also in complete contradiction to our comp plan and other zoning language…of course unless this language gets weakened or changed by our current zoning and comp plan committees to accommodate turbines in some manner.

The point being is that the Planning Board actually does have an option to say NO right in the LAW.  Now the Edsall planning board did, or would have ignored this.  It will be interesting to see what the new planning board and will do with this authority if it remains in our new zoning when in essence the wind developer visual assessments themselves are telling the PB they should deny the projects. 

And finally a couple pictures of just water for your enjoyment!  Interesting the beauty that is all around us in CV.  You just have to look!

Art Pundt