Abutters and towns have 30 days to file comments or respond and when/if
no comments are received, the Public Service Board issues first a brief
two- to three-page finding that defines the particulars of the project
and then a Certificate of Public Good. After the Certificate of Public
Good is issued, there is a 30-day appeal period.
LOCAL REGULATIONS
There is no requirement that either the applicant or the Public Service
Board post or publish any legal warning or notice about the project. In
terms of compliance with local Town Plans and zoning ordinances,
applicants must declare that their projects meet local regulations.
And, while local zoning regulations in both Warren and Waitsfield
prohibit development in the middle of open fields, a state regulation
requires all towns to exempt power generation and transmission
facilities from local zoning ordinances. Such power generation and
transmission facilities must, however, conform to the policies and
objectives spelled out for energy in the local Town Plan.
Joshua Schwartz is the director of the Mad River Valley Planning
District (MRVPD), a tri-town planning body that works individually and
collectively with Warren, Waitsfield, Fayston and Sugarbush on
development, planning, growth and energy issues.
ENERGY PLANS
Schwartz explained that currently the only way for towns to have input
into the Public Service Board is through the Town Plan. Towns have to
create their own energy plans and adopt them as part of the Town Plan in
order for the Public Service Board to consider local wishes when siting
alternative energy projects.
Waitsfield and Warren are currently in the process of rewriting their
Town Plans. The Waitsfield Planning Commission will discuss the issue of
alternative energy, including the identification of the Northfield
Ridge as a location for a wind farm, at its May 18 meeting.
At that meeting, the commission will hear from a group called Citizens
Energy that has identified the Northfield Ridge as possible location for
a wind farm. Waitsfield's Town Plan currently prohibits commercial
generation of wind power above 1,700 feet in elevation on the Northfield
Ridge.
WIND FARM SITES/NORTHFIELD RIDGE
Steve Shea, chair of the Waitsfield Planning Commission, said that he
was contacted by Randy Male of Citizens Energy and was told that the
company is investigating potential wind farm sites in New England and
that the Northfield Ridge was one of them.
"The planning commission is discussing energy issues as part of our Town
Plan update at our meeting of May 18 and Randy has been invited to
attend," Shea explained.
Shea said that Citizens Energy is a nonprofit organization with a wind
development division.
Randy Male, senior wind developer for the East Coast and Canada for
Citizens Energy said that he was coming to talk to the planning
commission about wind power generally and his company's preliminary
thoughts about a project on the Northfield Ridge.
CARBON NEGATIVE
"We think ridge could host a wind project and that’s what we’d like to
consider further. The initial work we have done in investigating the
ridge line suggests that if we were working iwth the ridge line in
Waitsfield and Northfield that the ridge could support something in the
neighborhood of 20 turbines ranging in size from 1.5 to 3 megawatts,"
Male explained.
The smaller turbines could generate as much as 30 megawatts of energy
and the larger as much as 60 megawatts. Male explained that a wind farm
generating 60 megawatts of energy would supply more than the current
electric load of The Valley and would make The Valley carbon negative,
not carbon neutral.
The attraction of the Northfield Ridge, he said is that it appears to
have good wind, based on publically avaialable wind data and the
resource (land) is constructable and there is a way to transmit the wind
energy into the grid.
"The ridge iteself is straight once you are on the top. You could drive
along the top fo the ridge, we could put a road up there," he said.
PROACTIVE PLANNING
Shea and Schwartz both pointed out that the meeting on May 18 will be
informational, versus a public hearing on a specific application.
"This is a good first step for Waitsfield to learn what this type of a
project entails. To create energy plans that address such issues as
siting and impact, people in The Valley need to understand the impacts.
What does proactive planning for alternative energy look like? It begins
with understanding the impacts and what projects look like, then having
thoughtful discussion about location and implications and what we hold
dear in The Valley - wildlife, scenic attributes, sustainable economic
development, etc. We have to figure out where our comfort level is,"
Schwartz explained.
"Citizens Energy is not the only participant in that discussion. The May
meeting is set up for the planning commission to look at the energy
section of the Town Plan and consider it in terms of different types of
alternative energy," he added.
The website for Citizens Energy is www.citizensenergy.com. Citizens
Wind, which Male represents, is a for profit subsidiary of the
non-profit Citizens Energy which was founded by Joe Kennedy in the late
1970's.
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