HAMMOND - A Cornell University engineering professor urged the Hammond Wind Advisory Committee to increase the setbacks in its wind energy law to two and a half times the height of a tower.
Dr. Paul G. Carr, one of the retired founders of the engineering firm Bernier and Carr, urged the panel to consider the safety of area residents.
Dr. Carr recommended extending setbacks to two and a half times the total height of a tower, including the extended blade. This would put 400-foot turbines 1,000 feet from roads and homes.
Hammond's current law requires a 400-foot tower needing to be only 600 feet from a property line or public road.
Turbine developer, Vesta, in its safety manual, according to Dr. Carr, recommends its workers not to stay within 1,300 feet of turbines unless absolutely necessary.
"People become blinded and entrenched in their positions," Dr. Carr said of "those bitterly opposed and those 100 percent for" wind turbine projects.
Dr. Carr urged the committee to consider the health, welfare, and the safety of the public as its top priority in drafting an ordinannce.
"One thing that should be held paramount," he said, "is finding that balance."
Dr. Carr said that the appropriateness of how and where the turbines will be sited include several common factors, including aesthetics, sound, wildlife, shadow flicker, public safety, and property values.
"Setbacks, ideally, should be adopted first," Dr. Carr said, "and then presented to the developer. Commonly, wind overlay districts developed by individual towns vary greatly from what developers may think is best."
The current Hammond wind energy facilities local law calls for setbacks of "the greater of one and one-half times the total tower height or 500 feet from the nearest" site boundary property line, public road, and nearest edge of the wind overlay district.
The ordinance calls for "the greater of two and one-half times the total tower height or 1,500 feet from the nearest off-site residence existing at the time of application," and, "one and a half times the total height" from any structure or aboveground utilities.
Finding the background noise in various areas around the town of Hammond, Dr. Carr said, will also be essential in developing noise standards and setbacks.
"The town should hire an independent acoustical consultant to establish ambient noise," he said.
A noise expert from Iberdrola Renewables is expected to be the featured speaker June 21 at 7 p.m. in the Hammond Village Community Center.
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