Bethel USA and wind turbine ordinances

From Bethelcitizen.com

Planners urge ordinance covering wind turbines
By Michael Daniels

WIND TURBINES ARE NOT THE ONLY AREA where Bethel planners would like to see town ordinances updated to deal with new technologies. Planning Board Chairman Al Cressy said the town Sign Ordinance — under which the new Telstar sign was approved — needs to be revised to address LED lights such as the bright red lights now flashing across from the Bethel Alliance Church. While internally illuminated signs are not permitted by the current ordinance, there is no mention of LED lights, and when the sign went up, Cressy said, the Town Office began receiving calls from businesses saying “What’s going on? We thought signs like this were not allowed.” Others have complained about the brightness of the lights. And for himself, Cressy said: “Basically I think [approving] that sign was a major mistake in terms of what we’ve been trying to do with the signage. It really sticks out like a sore thumb.” Planner Jon Cowan, who voted to approve the sign, agreed. Noting that the appllcation called for amber, not red, lights he said: “My sense now is we voted in error. My vote, knowing what I see now, was not a good decision. I thought we could trust them to do the right thing, and they didn’t.”

Photo: M. Daniels
With proposals for clusters of wind turbines (or wind “farms”) springing up with increased rapidity across the state, including one for 11 towers on Spruce Mountain in Woodstock, Al Cressy, chairman of the Bethel Planning Board told his fellow planners last week: “I think the town is hanging out on a limb, with no ordinance regulating wind turbines.”

“If someone came to us with a proposal for a turbine farm, or even a personal turbine, we’d have nothing to go on, absolutely nothing,” he said.

In fact, the only statutory authority the board would have over wind turbines would be Site Plan Review, which limits commercial structures to 2-1/2 stories, or 35 feet in height.

As a first step toward remedying that lack of oversight, Cressy asked the board to approve a letter he had drafted to the town Board of Selectmen, recommending that a wind turbine ordinance be drafted and presented to voters at next year’s annual Town Meeting in June.

Rumford already has such an ordinance in place, he told the planners, and the State Planning Office has also drafted a model ordinance that Bethel might look at as a starting point.

And to bridge the gap until such an ordinance might be enacted, Cressy’s letter to the selectmen also recommends the town enact a 180-day moratorium on wind turbine construction.

Following brief discussion the planners approved (4-1) Cressy’s suggestions and agreed to submit the letter to the selectmen.

There was some discussion at last week’s meeting as to whether or not a new ordinance should apply to personal as well as commercial turbines.

On that point, Cressy said, he was personally uncertain.

“Maybe it should; maybe it shouldn’t,” he said.

Planner Jon Cowan thought both should be covered, at least in the initial ordinance.

“I think you’d be on safer ground if you covered them all, and didn’t try to sort out commercial and residential, for now,” Cowan said.

The planners ultimately approved (4-1) Cressy’s suggestions and agreed to submit the letter to the selectmen.

The recommendation to the selectmen are as follows:

1) A Town ordinance be developed for proposal to the voters of Bethel for approval at the June 2010 Town Meeting. In conjunction with this recommendation, the Planning Board would like to propose that a Selectboard-appointed ad hoc committee, to include one Planning Board member, be established for the purpose of drafting a proposed ordinance and seeking Town voter input on that ordinance.

2) A 180-day moratorium be established as soon as possible by the Town of Bethel on the erection of wind turbines for both personal and commercial use. Such a moratorium would preclude any wind turbines from being erected within Bethel until the Town voters have had a chance to consider a wind turbine ordinance for approval.

At the selectmen’s next meeting, Monday, Jan. 4, they are expected to take up the Planning Board’s recommendations.

Among the questions that the selectmen will likely be discussing is whether or not the proposed 180-day moratorium should go to voters at the special Town Meeting set for Feb. 9 (see police-coverage story).