Massachusetts and wind farms

July 5, 2009 • Massachusetts
Cohasset keeps wind turbine bylaw
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Cohasset’s bylaw governing industrial wind turbines will remain on the books despite an effort by a citizens group to have the ordinance “sundowned’’ to review and overhaul it.

Voters who turned out for the June 27 Special Town Meeting were told the Planning Board had not voted a recommendation on the proposed petition article. Under state law, the board must hold a public hearing, which it did the night before the meeting, and vote a recommendation. Instead, planners postponed action on a recommendation until mid-July.

Petition proponents tried to keep their effort alive by asking voters to continue the Special Town Meeting to September after the Planning Board took its vote. But a majority “did not have the appetite’’ to continue it, according to Conrad Langenhagen, one of those who had petitioned to have the bylaw sundowned.

“It’s unfortunate that the Town Meeting voters weren’t given a chance to vote on the article,’’ he said.

Selectmen chairman Paul Carlson motioned to “continue action on the petition article indefinitely,’’ and that was approved.

According to Town Clerk Marion Douglas, that killed any consideration of the article beyond the Special Town Meeting.

The citizens’ petition drive had been launched in May, shortly after the Planning Board defeated a request from CCI Energy in Plymouth to build two, 400-foot industrial turbines on top of the Graham Waste landfill property.

Neighbors of the site had attended the hearings and strongly urged planners to deny the request. When the May vote was taken, one of the four Planning Board members voted against CCI’s request, which needed approval by all four members considering the proposal.

By Christine Legere
Globe Correspondent

The Boston Globe

5 July 2009



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