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Turbine plan creates turmoil between Quincy, Milton
Credit: By Dennis Tatz, The Patriot Ledger, www.patriotledger.com 27 October 2011 ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
MILTON – A proposed 480-foot wind turbine near the Granite Links Golf Club has Milton and Quincy officials on opposite sides of the fence.
The controversial plan has spawned proposed legislation and a pending lawsuit from the owners of the 27-hole golf course in an attempt to stop the project.
Recently, state Rep. Walter Timilty, D-Milton, a member of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, testified in opposition to the bill at a hearing the committee held at Barnstable High School.
If the bill that Timilty’s colleague, state Rep. Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy, filed in January becomes law, Milton would be unable to go ahead with a wind power project that could save the town nearly $800,000 annually in energy costs, Timilty said.
He said the town is within its legal rights to install the turbine.
“This green initiative is to be both applauded and supported,” Timilty said. “I feel confident this bill will not pass the House.”
No more hearings on the bill are scheduled.
Earlier this year, the Quincy City Council voted to oppose construction of the wind turbine at the Quincy-Milton line.
The resolution from the council came a month after Mariano filed legislation that would ban a wind turbine on the site.
The bill would prevent anyone from building a wind turbine within 2,640 feet of the golf course as long as there is a revenue-sharing agreement in place between Quincy and Milton.
Under a lease agreement with Quarry Hills Associates Inc., Quincy and Milton receive a percentage of the annual revenue the golf course generates.
The council’s resolution says the proposed turbine could have a negative impact on West Quincy residents’ use and enjoyment of their property as well as those who frequent the Blue Hills Reservation.
Meanwhile, Milton has found itself defending the wind turbine plan in Norfolk Superior Court.
In a lawsuit filed nearly a year ago, Quarry Hills asserts that construction of the turbine would violate a 1998 agreement with the town and “dramatically impair” Granite Links’ unobstructed views of the Boston skyline and the Blue Hills.
The suit also names D & C Construction Co. of Rockland, which would build the proposed turbine on town-owned land.
The suit alleges the town’s plan to use eminent-domain proceedings to obtain easements for access to the turbine site from land leased to the golf course would violate a covenant.
Quarry Hills paid $13 million for capping and cleanup of the former 104-acre landfill and quarry site. Clay from the Central Artery Project was used to convert the land into a golf course, which is also in Quincy.
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