November 4, 2006
New Zealand
New Zealand
A city property developer is calling on the Palmerston North City Council to obey to its own rules.
Building restrictions have been placed on a subdivision being built in Pacific Drive so it didn’t affect Turitea Valley residents’ view of the skyline, Brian Green Property Group owner Brian Green said.
But the council supports the building of wind turbines in the Turitea Reserve, he said.
“It’s not consistent.”
The wind turbines in the proposed Turitea wind farm are expected to be 125 metres high, including the blade.
Mr Green said his company is building a subdivision on Pacific Drive on 101 hectares of land.
He said when he applied for consent from the council two years ago there were various controls relating to the height of the houses.
The buildings were limited to six metres in height, normally it’s nine metres in a residential zone.
“The reasoning for this is to protect people in Turitea Valley and Valley View Road from people looking down on them.”
But wind turbines don’t seem to be a problem, he said.
Mr Green said he put in a submission to the council’s consultation on the change of purpose to the Turitea Reserve to allow renewable energy asking what height restrictions would be apply to the wind farm.
“If the council is going to get involved in business, it should be subject to the rules.”
The Manawatu Standard asked the council why the height restrictions on building in the Turitea Valley did not apply to building wind turbines, why were the height restrictions put there in the first place and is it fair that the council has put building restrictions in place that it doesn’t have to abide by?
In reply public affairs manager Malcolm Hopwood issued the following statement to the Manawatu Standard:
“Any wind farm proposal will be subject to a publicly notified resource consent where all effects (visual/landscape etc) will be considered. Such a resource consent will be determined by an independent commissioner(s))not by the council.”
By Helen Harvey
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/11/04/skyline-double-standard-claimed/