Ashburnham official drafts bylaw for wind power
ASHBURNHAM — Town Planner Eric Smith has begun circulating a proposed bylaw that would regulate public and private use of small wind energy systems.
The draft of the bylaw, which Smith sent via e-mail to numerous local leaders, lays out guidelines and requirements for installing and using wind turbines that generate less than 60 kilowatts of energy.
Town leaders who received Smith’s e-mail showed excitement Wednesday.
“I think this is a good thing,” former Selectman Mark Carlisle said. “If this is the kind of thing it takes to get us off fossil fuels, I’m all for it.”
Selectman Maggie Whitney called the bylaws “proactive, rather than reactive.”
“It’s a way of being prepared,” Whitney said. “This way, if someone wants to come in and build a wind turbine, we’re ready.”
Large turbines, which generate more than 60 kilowatts of wind energy, require a separate set of bylaws, drafts of which Smith began circulating among town leaders last week. Smith said he hopes to garner feedback for both sets of bylaws in the coming days, then submit final drafts to be voted on at Special Town Meeting on Nov. 13.
Stan Herriot, general manager of the town’s municipal light department, said small wind energy facilities may “create more controversy” than large ones.
“People who want to put these things up in their yards or in residential areas — that’s where a lot of the controversy is going to arise,” Herriot said.
Herriot is leading an effort to
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install a large wind turbine on Blood Hill, near the Ashby town line.
Smith said he will have his “work cut out” to prepare the bylaws in time for the Sept. 12 deadline for Special Town Meeting warrant articles.
Feedback from town leaders has begun trickling in, he said.
“There have been some questions about these turbines causing problems for birds and bats,” he said.
Unlike large wind energy systems, Smith said, installing small turbines does not require a special permit.
Smith also pointed to key differences between Ashburnham’s proposed bylaws and the model bylaws released by the State Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The model bylaws do not call for specific height requirements, Smith said, while Ashburnham’s bylaws would limit small turbines to 160 feet. Applicants could receive a height variance from the town Zoning Board of Appeals, the bylaw states, if limiting the turbine to 160 feet would cause “financial hardship to the applicant.”
“If the applicant isn’t getting a big enough return in terms of the money they’re saving because the turbine isn’t big enough, they could qualify for a variance,” Smith said. “Typically, you’re not thinking about people’s financial hardship when you’re setting up these kinds of bylaws, but it’s a way of trying to allow some flexibility to encourage using alternative energy.”
Another difference, Smith said, is Ashburnham’s provision for rooftop turbines, a section absent from the state’s model bylaws.
Rooftop turbines — small turbines that can be installed on the roofs of homes or businesses — would save taxpayers money by allowing them to rely less on energy suppliers.
In Ashburnham, Smith explained, any zoning matter not explicitly allowed by town bylaw requires a special building permit.
“Right now, if someone wanted to build a wind turbine, they would have to go through the Zoning Board of Appeals and get a use variance, which basically allows them to build something that’s not allowed to be built,” Smith said.
Carlisle echoed Whitney’s sentiment that the bylaws would prepare Ashburnham for those, like Herriot, who want to build wind energy facilities in town.
He added that Ashburnham, more than other towns, needs such regulation.
“Geographically, we’re more conducive to wind energy than other areas in the state,” Carlisle said. “Anything we can do to limit oil use is a step in the right direction.”
By Nick Brown
4 September 2008
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