January 3, 2014
North Carolina

Carteret Co. suspends building permits for tall structures

By: Leland Pinder | Time Warner Cable News | January 03, 2014 | charlotte.twcnews.com

CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. – The issuing of any permits to build tall structures in Carteret County is now temporarily suspended.

A public hearing on the issue was held Thursday night in response to a proposed wind farm known as the ‘Mill Pond Project’.

A 60 day moratorium was unaminously approved by Carteret County Commissioners after a lengthy public hearing Thursday night. Nearly 200 people showed up at the Crystal Coast Civic Center, 70 signed up to speak.

“Every form of energy extraction has a cost to the envrionment, that doesn’t make me happy. We have to have a fair and balanced discussion about this,” said Penny Hooper, Secretary for NC Interfailth Power and Light

Commissioners will now spend the next two months reviewing and possibly making changes to the county’s current tall structures ordinance. Among those that signed up to speak was Rocky Ray, a representative from Torch Renewable Energy, the Texas company behind the project.

“There’s been a notion that this is a fight. This is not a fight. This should be a collaboration. We don’t want to fight. We want to be a quality member of the community,” said Ray.

Protecting the military is quite possibly of the utmost importance.

“We need to make sure we can protect the encroachment of the air space of Cherry Point and Bogue Field here in Carteret County,” said Pine Knoll Shores Mayor, Ken Jones.

Jones said he feels the turbines would negatively impact tourism.

“Our landscape would be peppered with the wind turbines. It would really be destructive as far as the view goes,” said Jones.

But not everyone agrees.

“I think people would come to see the first wind farm in North Carolina. We could set up tours, I think people would be very interested in it,” said Hooper.

Some say Carteret County could lead the way in North Carolina with this type of project and it would be a very progressive move. But many feel there’s just too much at stake for the region.

The board will now meet with the planning commission next week.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/01/03/carteret-co-suspends-building-permits-for-tall-structures/