Falmouth selectmen to stand behind planning board on turbine bylaw article
Credit: By RYAN BRAY | The Enterprise | November 10, 2015 | www.capenews.net ~~
Selectmen will support a recommendation from the planning board to indefinitely postpone an article seeking to allow the town’s two wind turbines to operate in exemption of the town’s existing turbine bylaw when it goes to Special Town Meeting floor Tuesday night.
The town’s turbine bylaw, which was put into effect in 2013, requires all wind turbines in town to obtain a special permit from the zoning board of appeals before beginning operation. Approval of Article 3 at Special Town Meeting would let the town’s existing turbines, Wind 1 and Wind 2, operate without special permit because they were built before the bylaw was enacted.
Selectmen initially recommended that the article be approved as written. However, the board reversed course in its meeting prior to Annual Town Meeting Monday night. Selectmen voted instead Monday to approve a motion to defer to the planning board’s recommendation to indefinitely postpone the article, citing the need for additional information.
Town Meeting can still approve Article 3 Tuesday night despite recommendations from the planning board and selectmen. Two other articles are also on the agenda for Special Town Meeting, including one to appropriate money to the town’s energy reserve account to cover the cost of temporarily stopping operation of Wind 1. Article 2 at Special Town Meeting is a petition article asking that Town Meeting continue to support the town’s ongoing efforts at promoting wind energy in Falmouth.
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