Monday, April 20, 2015

Arbitrary!


The town of Hounsfield may host a new wind farm on Galloo Island and it appears some town of Houndsfield officials are positive about the proposal.

During the possible siting of the old wind farm proposal on Galloo of several years ago, the town of Henderson sued the town of Houndsfield over the wind farm proposal and siting process.

Below is a quote from a WWNY TV story.

"The town of Henderson has filed a lawsuit against the town of Hounsfield, and it's asking a judge to overturn the planning board's site plan approval for the Galloo Island Wind Farm.

Henderson Town Supervisor Ray Walker says he feels the town of Hounsfield and the Department of Environmental Conservation did not do their due diligence when investigating how the Galloo Island Wind Farm would affect neighboring communities."

The new Galloo wind farm is planned to have 32 turbines approaching 600 ft. high.

So let's fast forward and look at the town of Hounsfield comprehensive plan which was apparently completed in 2014.

Below is a quote from the comp plan of things the town feels are important recommendation priorities. 

“Improve communications with neighboring towns/villages. Communicating with neighboring towns and villages will further improve government efficiency by comparing and combining similar projects, discussing shared concerns/issues and taking subsequent action, governing with a regional vision and aligning goals with North Country REDC Key Strategies.”

Well I guess if Hounsfield is jazzed up about supporting the Galloo Island wind proposal, they better get moving on this important recommendation in their comp plan. 

Because if they support and host the Galloo Island wind farm, they will definitely have a lot of explaining to do to many neighboring  communities, about how they endorsed one of the biggest environmental industrial visual disasters in Eastern Lake Ontario!

And how about those NCREDC Strategies mentioned from the comp plan.  One of the goals in the vision statement from NCREDC is:

"Create the greenest energy economy in the state"

Really?  Yet Hounsfield has not said one thing in their zoning about "supposed green" wind energy siting or regulations...not one!

Seems that Hounsfield can't figure out what it is doing or where it is heading.

Put this all together and Hounsfield land planning seems rather arbitrary on the wind energy issue, yet apparently some of its leaders are willing to allow 32 massive industrial  structures that will impact most of the Eastern Lake Ontario Basin, which could in fact have a dramatic negative impact on neighboring community’s land planning visions.

It still amazes me how when the wind money arrives otherwise rational people quickly lose their minds!

 

 

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