January 2, 2008
Massachusetts

Business hopes to assuage neighbors over wind plan

HYANNIS – Hyannis Country Garden wants to be wind-powered by this summer.

The business’s owners, who have been working almost a year to get approval to erect a wind turbine, will hold a public meeting about the project at 5 p.m. Friday at the garden center, 380 W. Main St.

The turbine would provide more than 90 percent of the business’s electricity. If granted a special permit by the town, the turbine could be installed by this summer, said John Kenney, a lawyer for the company.

The Barnstable planning board expects to revisit the nursery’s plan Jan. 14.

The business has a 13,000-square-foot retail building, six greenhouses, and a nearly 6,100-square-foot office and storage building on its seven acres.

The three-blade turbine reaches roughly 155 feet. That includes a pole that is 120 feet high. The owners recently decided to move the project about 150 feet north toward the back of the property.

That should reduce the “shadow flicker,” a complaint of some neighbors, Kenney said. The rotating blades create shadows.

Moving the turbine also will slightly reduce the sound, which won’t be more than seven decibels, said Kenney. Five decibels is the typical level for human breathing.

Nearby neighbor Jim Totten, who has objected to the project, said moving the turbine puts it closer to his house.

Totten said he opposes the height and the potential for shadows and noise.

“I don’t want to be in my backyard and have to listen to this thing turning,” he said.

By Robert Gold
Staff Writer

Cape Cod Times

1 January 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/01/02/business-hopes-to-assuage-neighbors-over-wind-plan/