Barre needs to protect residents’ property with updated wind energy ordinance

Editor:

I am a concerned resident of Barre, New York.  Please inform all the residents of Barre, New York that if the wind turbines come to our town and the Town of Barre Wind Laws does not have a ban for the following items, right of domain will occur!

Landowners will lose the right to use their land as they wish. A resident will have to go to the zoning board for variances and ask the wind company to allow their request. Wind companies have requested ROW Permits in other communities; when a statement has not existed prohibiting the granting of these ROW permits within the town wind laws.

The Right of Way Permit, if the town does not ban, will allow the wind company to come on your land even if you do not want them to install lines, cables or whatever, cross your land for construction purpose, operational and maintenance of the turbines and all equipment in spite of the fact you do not have a lease with them. You lose your rights of your land. The wind company may or may not give you a one-time payment.

This type of permit could have a negative sale market, if you should want to sell.

The Town of Barre must state in the Wind Code that the Town of Barre bans ROW permits.

De facto is portion of land around the turbine that is not allowed to be built on and in some cases may not be allowed to be used. This radius of land is derived from the manufactures’ safety code. The usual safety zone is 3 times the turbine height from base to tip of propeller.

If you have a 500-foot turbine the de facto radius would be 1,500 feet. Now if a turbine is placed and part of that radius falls on your property and you do not have a lease with the wind company, you would still lose the right to that land, even though you own it and pay taxes.

This could result in a  negative sale impact of the property.

The Town of Barre must state in the Wind Code that Barre bans defacto permits. Without this permit ban, the wind company can request a permit to kill more or less at will, without any restriction of type of species and pay no fines.

We need to protect endangered species of bats and birds and the habitat of Barre, New York, which is a migratory flyway. It is the duty of our town officials to protect this fly zone and keep our American heritage.

I urge the readers to send their comments to the Barre Town Hall to be read at the Town Board meeting.

Alexander Nacca

Barre