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Falmouth boards split on turbine bylaw
Town meeting voters could pass the bylaw without tying town officials' hands if it is amended, said planning board member Richard Latimer. Latimer, who also serves as a town meeting member, said he plans to propose an amendment that would exempt from the bylaw properties owned or acquired by the town for municipal use. That exemption essentially defeats the purpose of the bylaw, said Drummey, who — on the options analysis process — represents people negatively affected by the town-owned turbines. "I think exempting municipal uses is entirely opposite of the reason we're writing the bylaw," Drummey said. "The whole point of it is to make sure municipal use is in the bylaw." Mistrust in the town among people who share Drummey's opinion demonstrate the unlikelihood of town meeting members passing the amendment, Murphy said.
Credit: By Sean Teehan | Cape Cod Times | November 10, 2012 | www.capecodonline.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
With Falmouth’s fall town meeting three days away, two town boards remain divided on a proposed wind turbine siting bylaw.
The bylaw, which appears on the town meeting warrant as “article three,” would require turbines use at least 51 percent of electricity they create on site – limiting the amount they sell back to the electric grid to 49 percent. The bylaw also would ban all turbines with a capacity higher than 250 kilowatts.
The Falmouth Planning Board wrote the article and submitted it to appear on the warrant.
“I think the sooner we get a bylaw in place the better,” said Patricia Kerfoot, vice chairwoman of the planning board, who noted that a moratorium on turbine projects in town expires in May. “If you wait until the April town meeting and for some reason it doesn’t pass at April town meeting, we’re right back where we started.”
The board began working on the bylaw in January, Kerfoot said. The new zoning regulations for turbines would replace old legislation for “windmills,” which has been criticized by residents and public officials as outdated.
During a joint meeting last month, selectmen told planning board members they would not support the bylaw on the town meeting floor.
“Although we’re for (the bylaw) we believe that passing that at this time would take some potential solutions off the table,” said Selectman Kevin Murphy, chairman of the board.
Zoning requirements under the new bylaw would prevent Falmouth from moving two 1.65-megawatt town-owned turbines – “Wind 1” and “Wind 2” – at the wastewater treatment plant on Blacksmith Shop Road to a spot about two miles away from Camp Edwards on the Massachusetts Military Reservation.
That stipulation would undercut selectmen’s promise to members of the Falmouth Wind Turbine Options Analysis Process – a panel charged with coming up with possible solutions to problems such as reported negative health effects associated with the turbines – that all options remain open while the group mulls suggestions to alleviate neighbor’s concerns.
“We surely don’t want to continue to dwindle down their options,” Murphy said.
After the panel investigated the possibility of moving the turbines, the idea was moved to the back burner for the options analysis process, said Todd Drummey, a member of the panel.
But selectmen still want to keep the option open, Murphy said.
Moving the turbines “may or may not be a viable option, but if we move forward with this bylaw, we would pre-empt this option,” Murphy said.
Town meeting voters could pass the bylaw without tying town officials’ hands if it is amended, said planning board member Richard Latimer.
Latimer, who also serves as a town meeting member, said he plans to propose an amendment that would exempt from the bylaw properties owned or acquired by the town for municipal use.
That exemption essentially defeats the purpose of the bylaw, said Drummey, who – on the options analysis process – represents people negatively affected by the town-owned turbines.
“I think exempting municipal uses is entirely opposite of the reason we’re writing the bylaw,” Drummey said. “The whole point of it is to make sure municipal use is in the bylaw.”
Mistrust in the town among people who share Drummey’s opinion demonstrate the unlikelihood of town meeting members passing the amendment, Murphy said.
But that argument holds little water for Latimer, who intends to introduce the amendment the night of town meeting, he said.
“That’s a political concern that, to me, is not valid,” Latimer said. “I tend to have more faith in the common sense in town meeting.”
Latimer’s proposed amendment has not been approved by the planning board, Kerfoot said. He plans on introducing it in his capacity as a town meeting member.
Other articles on the 57-article warrant include a nonbinding article to shut off both town-owned turbines and one that would expend town resources for repairs of private roads in some cases.
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