ALLEGANY - Town of Allegany board members were told that they will have to put more zoning laws into effect if they are going to have control over wind-turbine companies that may try to move into the community.
During a special meeting Monday at Allegany Town Hall, board members heard comments from Dan Spitzer, an attorney with Hodgson Russ LLP in Buffalo who is advising the town board on wind-turbine issues.
The small town-hall meeting room was filled with residents who were concerned with the possibility of a wind-turbine farm moving into the Chipmonk area. EverPower Renewables of New York City proposed a wind-turbine farm for the Chipmonk area a couple of years ago. Since that time, residents of that community have organized with Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County to keep a farm from moving into the area. The Concerned Citizens group has claimed that the 32 proposed wind turbines for the Chipmonk area would create noise, and aesthetic and environmental issues for the community.
The town board has considered placing a year-long moratorium on the proposed wind farm but was advised at Monday’s meeting by Mr. Spitzer to put more muscle into its governing stance by re-zoning the Chipmonk area into a wind-zoning overlay district. Pat Eaton, town supervisor, said this will likely be done in the near future. Mr. Spitzer said moratoriums, which would stop any action taken on the wind-turbine-farm proposal, are designed for emergencies. He said that as the laws stand now, the Allegany Town Planning Board, not the town board, holds the power in determining whether a wind-turbine farm could move into the community.
“We need to control what’s going on,” Mr. Eaton said after the meeting. “Then they (Everpower) would have to come in and make a zoning (change) request, and we could say yes or no.”
Mr. Eaton said the town board planned to discuss its contracts with the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) and any potential contract with EverPower in an executive session following the meeting. He said the board likely will not make further determinations on zoning changes in the Chipmonk area until the Oct. 22 meeting.
Kevin Sheen, senior director of development for EverPower, was at the meeting and said his company has slowed down the process at the proposed site in Chipmonk “so we could do a little more internal field work.”
“We plan on submitting a revised layout to the planning board for their next meeting,” Mr. Sheen said. “We will then continue to update all of the studies surrounding that revised layout.”
Mr. Sheen said the company has moved a couple of wind turbines from their originally planned locations on the Chipmonk ridgetops.
“Since we moved a couple of turbines, we’ll have to redo some of those (sound) studies and then represent those to the town” in the plans.
“There is a fairly significant shift in some of the turbines and we think it will better address some of the sound issues. Overall it’s a more palatable plan for the town. We’ve always made it our goal to develop responsibly and try to have a project that gives the most benefit to the town while having the least impact.”
Gary Abrams, of the Concerned Citizens group, told the board that residents of Chipmonk are uncomfortable with any type of mitigations or changes that may be applied to the proposed project.
“Ridge-line sightings of wind farms in a rural residential area is almost never a good idea,” Mr. Abrams said. “As it stands now, the town’s law does not give any protection against noise increases for people outside of 2,500 feet from the project. About half the people here (at meeting) live on Chipmonk Road just outside of 2,500 feet.
“What you’re conceptionalizing here with mitigation for financial benefits is sacrificing these people’s way of life, and their peace and quiet for money the town would get,” Mr. Abrams said.
The town board had recommended to the town zoning board a 2,500-foot buffer zone between wind turbines and residences. In addition, the town’s portion of the payment in lieu of taxes (P.I.L.O.T.) negotiated by the IDA would be roughly $22,000 a year for the entire wind farm. The school district, county and town would receive a P.I.L.O.T. in the same proportion of the respective taxes in the town, reports have stated. One example shows a school district getting 50 percent of the P.I.L.O.T., the county 40 percent and the town the remaining 10 percent.
Mr. Spitzer said the wind-turbine issue, and its legalities, are complicated at best.
“It’s a very complicated topic and the one thing I say, whether I’m representing the community or representing the developer, is that it will change your community for a generation, at least,” Mr. Spitzer said of a wind-turbine farm.
Mr. Eaton, who was listening in the background, revised Mr. Spitzer’s statement by saying, “It will change it forever.”
(Contact reporter Kate Day Sager at kates_th@yahoo.com)
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