Sylvania Twp could see wind turbines in their backyard
WTVG, abclocal.go.com 9 June 2011
Hundreds of wind turbines could soon sit in the backyard of Sylvania Township. Now a coalition is speaking out in effort to move the project away from their neighborhood. It’s happening in Riga Township in Michigan just over the line.
Sylvania Township neighbors tell us they aren’t against the project; however, they don’t want them in their backyard.
Joshua Nolan and Chris Wholehan learned of the windmill project in Riga Township two weeks after buying his home in this neighborhood. Nolan says, “Frankly had I known I would not have purchased that particular home.”
So Nolan and Wholehan decided to fight back and created the Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition. It’s a group trying to get the wind farm put somewhere else.
Wholehan says, “It’s not against windmills or green energy, it’s just against them putting them right next to my property.”
Nolan says, “We’ve studied this issue very intensely and what we have done is proposed a number of reasonable regulations that would help protect citizens of Riga, as well as the citizens of Sylvania.”
The coalition is asking Riga Township to move these windmills two miles farther north of the state line. The coalition’s website says the turbines will stand almost 500 feet tall eyesore. “That’s 80 feet taller than the Fifth Third Building, the tallest building in our region.”
Nolan and Wholehan also insist a windmill farm in their backyard will hurt property values in Sylvania Township and cause health and safety issues for their children.
“The most ironic example of their ridiculousness of their proposed regulations is the manufacturer of the turbines, Vestas, requires their employees to wear personal protective equipment, hard hat, steel toed shoes within 1300 feet. But they expect families to live 500 feet away with no protection whatsoever,” says Nolan.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/10/sylvania-twp-could-see-wind-turbines-in-their-backyard/