Who Has The Burden Of Proof?

Then there is BP’s A-10 comments on zoning and who should have the burden of proof as to why the zoning should be adhered to or is not unduly burdensome, or is unduly burdensome.  Of course BP feels the town should have the burden of proof.   This is one more absurd distortion of zoning that the wind industry requires to force its bullshit on unsuspecting communities, and hoping we are stupid enough to suck into this zoning game that we can’t win.  

For example they take no responsibility for their visual impacts. They can’t because they already know how absurd and invasive the impacts will be.   

Normal zoning practices would say that if you cause a problem or disturbance, or health issue that YOU are responsible for the impact.  Like having a junkyard, it is up to YOU to screen it and reduce the impact by traditional zoning practices, or put your junk yard in a certain district away from other uses that could be impacted negatively.

 Not with wind energy. It needs a free ride from zoning. That has become part of its fight, and we should not be in any scheme that endorses this practice because it is so destructive and precedent setting.    It turns zoning on its head once again.  And THAT is why traditional setback approaches to this fiasco are so completely insane.   Now they can not be responsible for their impacts, it is up you.  Get curtains, plant some trees as screening, sell your home and move or worse yet, abandon your home because no one will even consider buying it because of the impacts, because they will take no responsibility.

Consider if you or I went to a zoning board of appeals for a variance to build a home a little closer to a neighbor’s property line because our property is too small.  We would be asking in essence to be allowed to violate the established setback laws for our property.   Whose responsibility is it to make the case that you need the variance outside of the normal setback laws?  Is our decision the decision of first resort and it is now the town’s responsibility to defend against it.   Does the ZBA go get a lawyer to  prove to YOU that the town zoning laws are rational and not burdensome on you???  Of course not.  You would be the one with the burden to make your case to the ZBA for the variance to the existing zoning laws and it should be NO different for the wind industry.   That has been the tradition of common zoning practices for hundreds of years.  At least until the wind industry came along and fully realized that they need to completely overturn these zoning practices and even pre-empt them outright to spread their snake oil scam over the landscape.

When you have a scam so invasive it requires the complete over turning of your zoning laws to survive, then why the hell are we screwing around with this game of wind zoning laws in the first place????

If a developent scheme is so destructive that it violates all zoning laws, can not fit within and zoning laws and land practices and in fact requires actual preemption of those laws, then don't ya think we ought to wake up to the fact this type of development should not be in our towns in ANY form at all.  Duuuuuuuuhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Now they as large foreign entities with no other relationship to our towns other than profit are making the case that their land use decisions are the decisions of first resort and we must take the defensive and prove to everyone that our laws are justifiable and should be followed. It is insane and we have sucked into the entire scam!!!!

Once again the wind industry requires a nearly complete destruction of long held zoning law practices and land use practices to ensure the success of its business model. If that doesn’t work spread some money around and get some green nitwit governor like Cuomo and nitwit NY state government to simply get rid of zoning…just get rid of it if it gets in the way.

What is at stake here is the violation of zoning and zoning rights altogether that should protect us and give us reasonable assurances that we can  carry forward our lives in a reasonable and  consistent manner in our communities , not just this little setback here and there , and this little sound issue blah blah blah.

We should not even be playing this zoning game AT ALL with the wind industry and Article X.  We should be standing in direct and significant opposition to it at all levels.  There is far too much at stake in the bigger picture.