[SustainableTompkins] Dryden's wind energy law

[George Frantz]

Simon,
   
  Of course I have read Dryden's local law, all 11 pages of it.  Otherwise I would not have made the comments I made.
   
  As far as the obstacles let's start with the $250 upfront fee, then go on to:
   
  -the requirement for Town Board approval of a Special Permit, after a public hearing, which effectively makes the approval a political decision and puts the applicant at the mercy of their neighbors;
   
  - the the requirement to provide the names and addresses of all property owners within five hundered of your property;
   
  - the requirement for a completed SEQR Visual Assessment Form, which can take even a professional like me hours to compile the required information for, and for which the DEC  has fifteen pages of instruction for filling the 2-page document out;
   
  - the $3,000 to $5,000 that would be needed to produce computer photographic simulations of the proposed residential wind turbine if requested by the Town - almost a guarantee should even one neighbor step up to the mike and oppose the application;
   
  - the excessive setbacks from property lines equal to the height of the tower plus 10 feet, which means that the minimum lot size a resident would need to be able to invest in the technology is almost two acres.  Given the almost universal use of engineered break points in tower design they can be safely place on lots as small as a half acre;
   
  -the requirement that the electric supply lines from the wind turbine to the home be placed underground at an added cost of $10 - $15 per linear foot.
   
  I certainly wouldn't characterize the above as a "building permit-like" process, nor would I characterize it as being very encouraging to anybody in the Town of Dryden who might be contemplating a residential wind turbine system.
   
  I'm sure the Town of Dryden Town Board didn't adopt the ordinance with the intent of not permitting home wind energy systems.  But as is the case so often in Ithaca, NY, the obsessive fear of what could happen trumps the vision of what should happen, and the control freak mentality takes over.
   
  George Frantz
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
"Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl at simonstl.com> wrote:
  George Frantz wrote:
> The Town of Dryden last year adopted a local law that technically
> permits wind energy systems, but trhere are some many obstacles
> to getting approval only the die hard would consider trying.


Hmm.... have you actually read the law? I didn't think there were many 
obstacles there - beyond setbacks reflecting the height of the tower - 
for residential windmills. It's a building permit-like process.

Commercial windmills are still prohibited, not just presented with 
obstacles, though that's coming up for discussion again.

Thanks,
Simon St.Laurent
http://livingindryden.org/
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