Zoning Notes - Meteorological Towers (Met Towers)

Here is what the Cape Vincent zoning law says about met towers.


9. Meteorological Towers:

1. Intent:

Meteorological towers may be allowed through a Special Use Permit in the Agricultural District of the Town as long as they comply fully with requirements of this Law. It is the intent of this Law that Meteorological Towers are temporary structures.

 And here is what it says about met tower heights.

b. Meteorological Towers shall be below the height requiring FAA lighting.

Now before we go further let's examine something fundamental about met towers.  Like what are they?
Well, basically a met tower is a tall thin tower placed in the area of a proposed wind farm so the wind company can study the wind patterns. The FAA generally requires lights, usually strobe lights,  on met towers if they exceed 200 ft. 

But here is the really important question.  Why are we zoning for met towers?

Oh that's right...that would be because the town board has conceded they will allow the placement of industrial wind turbines in the community in some form.  Or they have agreed that some industrial wind development is an acceptable use in the community.  Met towers in this context are specific to industrial wind development.  No wind development...no need  for met towers or to zone for them.

Now this would be after two elections that put the current town board in power and the ongoing mantra from the supporters of these officials that if they were elected they were anti wind. It would be an anti wind election, a final decisive referendum for NO WIND IN CV, wind was going away, no way no how, blah, blah, blah!  Then why do we have a zoning law with  zoning for met towers and the monster industrial wind turbines that come right along with them???

Well...maybe you can work that out before the elections.

Yet here they are in a tizzy over Art X zoning to allow industrial wind and the met towers that supports it after all that anti wind election  hoopla!  And the sad part is they can't even tell you how many turbines this new zoning law will allow.  Go ahead and ask them.  If they give you a precise answer I sure would like to hear it, and I will post it here!

But note that part in the zoning quoted above that all met towers will be of a height so as to not require FAA lighting.  So I am guessing this is why???  Is it because they don't want flashing strobes detracting from the scenic quality of the town day and night??? Not sure what else it could be.

Ooookkkkk...so we are going to allow some massive industrial wind turbines with flashing red FAA lights, and spinning rotors bigger than a football field that will be seen across the region, then we are going to worry about lights on a couple met towers that eventually get taken down????  Towers so thin you can hardly seen them anyhow?

Zoning  note to town board:  If you are making an aesthetic decision about lights on met towers, you might want to consider that you are zoning to keep flashing lights off a few met towers for what?

So we don't see the met towers that will provide the data to justify  many more 500 ft. monster wind turbines with flashing lights on them that will be seen all over town and around our region????

Anything wrong with this zoning picture???  Is this the same logic that you will apply to your Article 10 defense???