If you’re going to deny a local business the right to do what it wants on its own property, shouldn’t you have an actual reason? Not according to the Plymouth Zoning Board, which rejected a local Stop & Shop’s request to build a wind turbine strictly based on personal preference, reports Wicked Local’s Emily Clark:
After three hours of listening to protracted and sometimes confusing arguments for and against a proposal to site a wind turbine behind Stop & Shop off Exit 6, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted Wednesday night to deny the special permit request.
While ZBA Chairman Peter Conner and ZBA member Bill Keohan said the project meets the town’s bylaw requirements, the rest of the board expressed concerns of its proximity to residential areas and other issues.
Now, it’s certainly possible to stumble into an OK outcome via a terrible process (this is known in the scientific community as dumb luck). According to WATD’s Charles Mathewson, the turbine would be 600 feet from an apartment complex, which would be awfully close. A GE report recommended wind turbines be placed no closer than 900 feet to residential areas.
The answer to that is to pass a law that says wind turbines should be placed no closer than 900 feet to residential areas. That’s how we do things in this country – we make laws and we follow them.
Instead, the Zoning Board rejected the turbines based not on any law, but on “conflicting evidence of health effects of large turbines,” which is basically like saying you’re worried the wind turbines will give people herpes. Meanwhile, Plymouth will continue relying on a rickety old nuclear power plant that threatens local wildlife.
Zoning Boards are the worst.
Cross-posted from The Green Miles
Special permits are generally only required with there is a nonconforming use. So what was the reason that S&S requested the special permit?
I’m not saying the zoning board made a good call, but there is something missing in your account of the problem.
Some MA zoning allows non-conforming use by special permit, and the PB may deny. The denial cannot be blatantly capricious, but the board’s reasons for denial do not need to be airtight, just defensible on appeal.
Politically, turbine approval is a HUGE loser. Plenty of voters have read stories of turbine abutters being driven ill with low frequency noise and flicker. Irrespective of the science, and veracity, of these reports, the political default will always be “no.”
When cellphone networks were expanding, towns were caught without any language regulating the placement of cell towers and antennas. It took a decade+ to revise zoning codes to include such language. We’ll see if this happens for turbines.
Turbines just got a 2-to-1 approval both in Falmouth and Fairhaven. What’s your proof they’re a loser?