The members of the Hamburg Town Board say they didn't know BQ Energy was looking to expand its wind turbine project south from Lackawanna into Hamburg.
Representatives from BQ Energy say they didn't know the Town Board was considering imposing a moratorium on wind energy in Hamburg.
The Town Board took a first step in that direction Monday night, setting an April 23 public hearing for a moratorium that would halt any wind development for up to six months.
The moratorium, if approved, would be retroactive to Monday night.
"Right now we're not prepared to accept an application based on the laws we have," Councilman D. Mark Cavalcoli said.
Officials said the town's current wind ordinance dates to 1989, to a different generation of technology. BQ's turbines in Lackawanna have 255-foot towers with 153-foot blades, reaching a full height of nearly 410 feet.
Mark Mitskovski, project manager for BQ in Lackawanna, said the company is exploring its options along the Lake Erie shore. Placement of future towers will depend, in part, on measurements taken at the eight towers that are nearly complete. "The area that we're talking about [is] the area that's been excavated by Gateway," Mitskovski said after the meeting, as he pointed to a map of the Hamburg shoreline. "We're really talking about extending along the front of this," he said, pointing near where the water meets the land.
Mitskovski argued against a moratorium, saying it would be detrimental in dealing with investors. He said it also could cause delays because some of the engineers and other professionals might move on to other projects rather than have their contracts extended.
"We have no interest in trying to railroad a project down your throats," Mitskovski told the board.
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