February 8, 2013
Massachusetts

Judge says Milton must limit operation hours for proposed wind turbine

By Lane Lambert | The Patriot Ledger | February 8, 2013 | www.patriotledger.com

MILTON – An arbitration judge has ruled that Milton’s proposed wind turbine can’t “play through” at the Granite Links Golf Course.

Retired state appeals court judge Gordon Doerfer said this week that the town must shut down the turbine during daytime hours of the seven-month golfing season at the course, which is mostly in Quincy but includes eight of 27 holes in Milton.

Doerfer told town officials and Quarry Hills Associates, the course’s owner that the turbine’s operation would pose “a significant distraction to the play of golf” on four holes closest to where the turbine would be erected.

The binding arbitration ends a two-year dispute between the town and Quarry Hills.

He said the turbine could be operated round the clock from Nov. 16 to March 31, but only at nighttime and predawn hours during the April 1-Nov. 15 golf season.

Doerfer ruled that Milton violated “taking” provisions when Town Meeting voted in 2010 that a turbine could be built on town-owned land “as of right.” He said that action sidestepped “all of the controls that a developer normally has to fulfill.”

The dispute began when Milton proposed putting up a turbin on town land near the border of the Quarry Hills Golf Course. The town approved a $6 million loan for the project in 2010.

Quarry Hills Associates took the town to Norfolk Superior Court, saying the turbine would violate the terms of a 50-year lease with Milton for that acreage. A Superior Court judge ordered that the lawsuit be decided by binding arbitration, since the dispute was about lease terms.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/08/judge-says-milton-must-limit-operation-hours-for-proposed-wind-turbine/