I noted K at Pandora’s blog recently celebrated a four
year anniversary (2008) of her research and blogging on industrial wind in Cape
Vincent. Congratulations to her and her efforts. I have just had a small six year (2006) anniversary of my own recently
concerning the CV wind battle. My quiet little
anniversary celebrates a critical event for me that occurred a full two years before the Pandora blog and research
even came to online.
Six summers ago the president of the WPEG group handed me a computer disc and told me
maybe I should look it over. She wasn’t sure what was on it or what
specifically it was about, but it seemed to be about wind energy. It turned out to be the NY State Energy Research
Development Authority’s “ Wind Energy
Tool Kit.” You can read it at the link below. It is a slightly different version than the
one I read in 2006 but the basics are the same.
We will talk about NYSERDA and our zoning in the next
post and why they are important all of a sudden in our zoning process. Stay
tuned.
The “Tool Kit” is a very pro wind document to
assist municipalities with a wind energy
overview who were facing or considering industrial wind development. It turned
out to be one of the most important documents I would read and for me set into
action understanding the importance of the community comprehensive plan in the zoning
process. My first important and critical
research from an anti wind stand point came early on (2006) and directly from a
very pro wind document. All you had to do
was carefully research what was being said between the lines and be a little perceptive and
you could see all the industrial wind energy problems being rationalized, and
thus what critical as a strategy to fight against it. So it is a real hoot when Bryan Stumpf wrote
the editorial in the WDT in 2006 saying my Internet research was all from anti
wind sites. He didn’t have a freakin
clue!!!
The most important part was the idea of a comprehensive
plan and how zoning must follow the direction of a community’s comp plan once
adopted. Of course they then and still
do promote the idea of comp planning, BUT, as a tool to plan for and promote wind energy
in a community. More importantly they
did talk directly about the legality of a comp plan and how any zoning must follow
the com plan ideals, and that there is case law that supports this comp plan and
zoning relationship….BINGO!!!!!! The
light went on above my head!!!! In 2006
we were about to adopt a wind law amendment, and any wind law amendment would
be in direct violation of our existing comp plan. But I didn’t know that till the next day.
The very next day I marched down to the town offices
and asked the town clerk, Arlene Ingerson back then, if Cape Vincent had a comp
plan. Indeed we did and she gave me a
copy along with a copy of our zoning laws which I also asked for. There is
another interesting side story here as to what I also found on a table in
Rienbeck’s office that day in 2006 and how important it would become. I will save that for later.
At 2AM the next morning in June or July of 2006 while speed
reading the CV comp plan cover to cover I struck the gold mine we all know
about now and still remains in our new 2012 comp plan. It was the clause on page 32 of the old plan that
discourages towers and utilities in the agricultural district area and discourages
any development that would change the scenic rural agricultural landscape of
the interior….not only the water front but the rural agricultural interior!!! That is an important concept now that
the new zoning focuses the scenic protections on the waterfront and sacrifices
the interior protections for the possibility of wind development.
But I also noted that the bulk of the 2003 Comp Pan theme was protective of the scenic
rural character of the entire town and village, and the zoning fit very nicely
into carrying out those goals. At 2AM on
an early summer morning in 2006 it dawned on me what we had to do, where we had
to go with this document, and how critically important it was. It was a legal
gold mine. I knew then a lot of things
were going to hinge on this little gold mine of a document! I sat there stunned as to what I was reading
and re-read it several times. It dawned on me what a scam the old town and
planning board was pulling on all of us by ignoring one of THE most critical phases and documents of the zoning
process. It also dawned on me like a
slap upside the head that if they were willing to hide and distort this zoning
process so clearly outlined in NY law, what would they be capable of when all
of this was reinforced by blatant conflicts of interest? That is when I knew in
2006 we were in real trouble, and we
should not compromise as some suggested but attack the problem head on. We also needed as much focus or more on this
issue as the direction of bats, birds and turtles, as a solid defense. As a result I began to formulate a strategy, through the courts if necessary, as to how
this comp plan and our zoning could be used to prohibit wind turbines in the CV
community. Interestingly enough the two papers I gave to the 2012 zoning
committee that were outright rejected were the six years of research details
since 2006 as to how our existing zoning and comp plan could legally justify prohibiting
industrial wind in CV, or where new zoning and comp planning should go for the
same result. This 2006 research also pointed up a need to
formulate a strategy aimed at the NYAG and local DA’s office to battle the
conflicts of interest. As Pandora’s blog came online in 2008 I had a year
before with other contacted the NYAG’s office with research and already put
that process in motion and a month before meeting with the Jefferson County DA,
with a petition of concerned people about the blatant conflicts of interest. And guess what? The fact the old town officers with conflicts
were willing to ignore the comp plan, the most important part of the zoning
process, on behalf of the wind developers
and their own financial interests has always been a key piece of the evidence.
K at Pandora does some good research at times, but I don’t recall her ever
having to actually compile it or pitch it to a DA or the NYAG’s office, and
investigators, especially when there was no blog support, against conflicts of
interest that came much later, and everybody was afraid to be something other
than anonymous, just like today.
In 2006 at the
first public hearing on the 2006 draft wind law I spoke directly to the comp
plan and zoning relationship and the importance, and how ignoring it would get
that old board in potentially big trouble.
Which essentially it did? And six
years later that is what it has all come down to as I was sure it would. Can
the comp plan and our zoning hold up to the legal test. But now there is a new and bigger component
thrown into this arena…Article X. We
will examine that is the next post below and how convoluted the zoning debate
still is in some respects! I will show you in the post below how I think our wind zoning train has run off the rails!
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