Wind turbine hearing cancelled
COHASSET — The scheduled public hearing for discuss the Cohasset Heights wind turbine project was cancelled late Tuesday afternoon, just hours before its advertised and posted hearing.
According to an e-mail send by Planning Board administrator Jo-Ann Pilczak, the Planning Board and the applicant are still awaiting receipt of the official, endorsed order of remand from Land Court for the CCI-Energy remand public hearing. Without the official order, the public hearing could not be opened.
The public hearing will be re-scheduled at a time to be determined. The public hearing will likely need to be re-advertised, which requires at least two weeks lead time.
The project application, put forth by a private developer, Plymouth-based CCI-Energy, proposes the installation of two AAER 1.65-megawatt sized wind turbines sited off Route 3A on the hill behind Graham Waste Services and Hingham Lumber.
The public hearing process for the CCI-Energy’s special permit application, the first under the town’s wind energy conversion bylaw, was contentious, controversial and drawn out. The public hearing process began for the project in early September 2008 and concluded in early May. In between, there were hours of developer and public comment entered into the record as well as hundreds of pages of data and public comment submitted.
In early May, the Planning Board voted 3 to 1 to approve the application. However, the vote was effectively a denial of the application because under state statutes, the application had to be approved by four members of the five-member board. (Planning Board member Jean Healey took office after the public hearing began and could not vote on the project.)
Planning Board vice chairman Stuart Ivimey was the sole opposing vote. The Planning Board’s special permit decision was filed with the Town Clerk on July 9 and CCI-Energy filed its appeal of the decision to Land Court on July 20.
If the court orders the remand, the public hearing is intended for a “limited purpose,” specifically the public hearing is on those issues related to the denial.
Cohasset Mariner
25 November 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
- Turbine hearing re-scheduled
- Cohasset: Planning board rejects second bid for wind turbines
- Turbines blow back into town
- Wind turbines blown away; CCI Energy project denied by Planning Board
- Bourne rejects Howland turbine plan for second time
- New issues face wind project; hearing continued to Jan. 20
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