| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Falmouth getting faulty legal advice on turbine
Credit: www.capecodtimes.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Bad legal advice to the town of Falmouth seems to have led it from the frying pan into the fire with the long-running wind turbine fiasco.
It’s now painfully obvious the town’s legal advisers were asleep at the switch when Falmouth pressed ahead with a massive wind generating project without going through the proper zoning and permitting procedures. If it had actually followed its own rules with the same due process it implores residents to follow on a regular basis, the current impasse with neighboring property owners over the turbine’s ill effects might have been avoided altogether. That was mistake No. 1 – clearly, a whopper that placed the municipality in the frying pan.
And here comes mistake No. 2: Falmouth municipal officials are again acting on bad legal advice by proposing a zoning bylaw exemption for town-owned wind turbines in a special town meeting on Nov. 10. The town manager now appears convinced that a major town screwup can be easily fixed by passing a new zoning bylaw. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Spot zoning is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps Falmouth’s town counsel would be wise to familiarize himself with the following paper on spot zoning before pushing the town into yet another firestorm of legal troubles: http://tinyurl.com/q77eqm3.
Courtney Gavin
Orleans
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=73962 ]
