LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Committee drops warrant articles 

Credit:  By Erin Baldassari / staff writer, Wicked Local, www.wickedlocal.com 21 April 2011 ~~

The Medfield Energy Committee decided to pull its two articles regarding the Green Communities Act from the Town Meeting warrant this year, committee Chair Marie Nolan said.

Article 30 would have allowed zoning by right for renewable and alternative energy generating, manufacturing, or research and development firms; and Article 31 would have adopted the “Stretch Code,” an energy efficiency requirement for new residential and commercial buildings.

Both articles need to be passed for Medfield to qualify for approval under the Green Communities Act, but there’s a problem with the way the zoning-by-right article was written, Nolan said.

“The as-of-right siting doesn’t meet the requirements for approval under the Green Communities Act,” Nolan said. “We didn’t write it properly, and it’s too restrictive to meet the requirements.”

As it’s currently written, Article 30 allows for zoning by right for only wind, solar or geothermal but excludes other renewable energy generating, manufacturing or research and development facilities such as biomass power conversion or thermal technologies, low impact hydropower, landfill gas, or advanced biofuels.

“We tried to narrow the uses because we thought it would be easier to get approved by the town that way,” Nolan said. “But there’s another problem, too. We only put the siting in existing industrial-intensive zones, but we excluded the business industrial district, and of course, if it’s a research and development firm, we’d want that in the business industrial district.”

The retraction of the articles isn’t to say that the Medfield Energy Committee isn’t interested in pursuing designation as a Green Community or isn’t committed to energy efficiency improvements for the town, Nolan said. Since its induction, the MEC has made significant reductions in Medfield’s energy usage, including replacing the town’s streetlamps with more efficient lights.

“We’re going to take our time to write the by-law properly,” Nolan said. “We want to do the best possible thing because once it’s on the books, it’s on the books.”

Waiting another year to go before Town Meeting has another benefit, Nolan said, allowing the MEC to see whether the GCA is more of a benefit or a burden to towns that have already adopted the requirements.

“There’s a lot of controversy over the Stretch Code,” Nolan said. “There’s no real benefit of passing the Stretch Code now if we can’t get approval under the GCA. If we wait a year, we’ll have the benefit of seeing whether it’s onerous for other towns.”

The MEC will be passing out detailed flyers to explain their decision at Town Meeting on Monday, Nolan said.

Source:  By Erin Baldassari / staff writer, Wicked Local, www.wickedlocal.com 21 April 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon