Be careful with turbine sitings
www.wickedlocal.com 9 December 2010
I am writing this letter as a resident of Piney Point in Marion. Our neighborhood is across a narrow cove from the proposed wind turbine site on the Stone Estate, which contains Great Hill. Readers will immediately dispatch this letter as a Not in My Neighborhood letter. Wrong. I personally think wind turbines are a reasonable approach to helping us gain pollution-free energy. The western states have wind farms in desert and remote areas. We are about to see wind turbines in the local offshore waters. That’s the point. The choice of location for the turbines is basic to their value. Putting one or more installations at Great Hill is like putting a 747 in the center of Marion. What we might gain in energy we would lose in reduced property values and the destruction of small town and rural values. Who would compensate the town for the decline in property values for homes near the site? At the selectmen’s meeting a local realtor checked with her Falmouth counterpart and reported declines of 20 to 40 percent. Piney Point provides the town with a large assessment base. Water front properties would be hurt the most!
Fairness would require the town to compensate affected properties damaged by proximity to this huge industrial installation. Any economic benefit accruing to the town would be offset by litigation expenses, settlements and permanent loss of real estate tax revenues. Falmouth is now being sued by citizens adversely affected by the Wind Turbine. If you think this is a suit by the uniformed, Google Alec Salt, Phd.: Infra Sound: Your ears hear it but they don’t tell the brain. Let’s all support wind turbines but also use good sense and situation awareness to maximize the value of this energy alternative. Location – away from residential and environmentally sensitive areas.
Gerald Rosen
Marion
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/09/be-careful-with-turbine-sitings/