April 4, 2012
Ontario

Wind turbines meet resistance in LaSalle

CBC News, www.cbc.ca 4 April 2012

Opposition to proposed wind turbines in LaSalle is growing.

Approximately 50 people attended a meeting to find out how they can stop the towering turbines from cropping up in their community.

One landowner is already pushing ahead with plans for two of the towers to be built behind Villanova high school.

Many of the residents at the meeting said they don’t want LaSalle to look like Lakeshore, which is dotted with wind turbines.

Isabel Turgeon lives on Malden Road. She already has a lot of solar panels on nearby property, but she’s more worried about the arrival of wind turbines.

She is concerned about “health, aesthetics and my property value,” she said.

Tim Parent, who organized the meeting, told residents they could see their property values drop considerably if there are wind turbines nearby.

“Around these turbines, your property value could drop by 20 to 40 percent and in some cases, total abandonment,” he warned.

Biagio Gino Longo, who lives on Disputed Road near where two turbines are to be erected, said he’s trying to sell his house.

He claims a potential buyer backed out of a potential sale when she found out the location was near a proposed wind turbine.

“When we stopped her and asked, ‘why don’t you want to come in? Is there something wrong with the house?’ she said, ‘no, you live on Disputed [and] that’s where they’re going to put the tower,'” he said.

People at the meeting signed up to lobby politicians and circulate petitions against wind turbines in LaSalle.

They also decided to serve notice, in writing, to the landowner who is bringing in the first turbines that he’ll have a fight on his hands.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/04/wind-turbines-meet-resistance-in-lasalle/