March 22, 2012
Nova Scotia

County unlikely to reopen wind debate

Darrell Cole, www.cumberlandnewsnow.com 21 March 2012

UPPER NAPPAN – Cumberland County Warden Keith Hunter doubts his municipality is going to revisit its land-use bylaw regarding the location of wind turbines.

Reacting to news the Town of Amherst is going to ask the municipality to take another look at its setback regulations, the warden said the issue is something the county has already spent a considerable amount of time.

“We just finished that,” Hunter said. “We did a bylaw review and came up with new setbacks of 600 metres. In my view if it’s good for the county residents it’s good for the town residents.”

Hunter said the county looked at its bylaw in an effort to better protect county residents. The county held open houses across the county and got feedback from residents. He can’t see the municipality having one setback requirement for county residents and another for the town.

“If they were to be placed 600 metres away from any dwelling that’s far enough,” Hunter said. “When we first started our bylaw a few years ago we were thinking 300 metres. From all the research being done that was far enough to mitigate any flicker or noise. I’ve been less than 300 metres from the ones in Pubnico and there was no noise at all.”

Earlier this week, Amherst decided to send a letter to the county asking it to re-examine its regulations that have the minimum distance between wind turbines and habitable dwellings at 600 metres.

Hunter said the county will discuss the issue once it receives the town’s letter, but personally he can’t see his municipality reopening the process.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/22/county-unlikely-to-reopen-wind-debate/