When it comes to setback, it’s all about noise.
That’s what Richmondville’s Setback Committee told the town and planning boards Wednesday in a joint meeting held to discuss their recommendations for industrial wind turbines.
At Supervisor John Barlow’s request that the effort to draft a wind law be finally put to bed, another joint meeting was set for last night, Tuesday, when the town is likely to act on it.
“I want to bring this to a head,” said Mr. Barlow.
In April, after logging hundreds of miles visiting industrial wind sites and spending months wading through studies and laws from other municipalities, the Setback Committee recommended a minimum 1,500-foot setback from property lines for the turbines.
In July, Tetra Tech wind power consultant Anntonette Alberti said she’d never heard of that big of a setback—even though a number of local laws in New York State contain even greater distances, Setback Committee members said.
Wednesday’s meeting was a chance for them to explain how they reached their decision before the town finalizes a wind law nearly two years in the works.
The law is still subject to a public hearing before its final adoption.
“Sound will probably affect people more than anything else,” said committee member William Lancaster, in explaining the emphasis on setback. “We haven’t even addressed things like flicker…”
Committee chair Marty Thompson pointed out the seven-member group, which in addition to him and Dr. Lancaster included ZBA chair Bruce Loveys, John Pendergrass, Councilman Roy Bilby, Joan Sondergaard, and Robert Reed, stressed they “didn’t take their charge lightly. We feel we did the best job we could. If we had another 29 months, we’d probably come up with the same thing.”
Mr. Pendergrass said they also kept in mind that they were making recommendations for all of Richmondville—not just Warnerville Hill, where Reunion Power has been measuring wind levels and hopes to build a project.
Most laws the committee looked at, Mr. Thompson said, included a waiver clause that would allow neighbors to allow turbines to be sited closer than 1,500 feet to their property, but requests would likely still be subject to Planning Board approval.
Typically, he said, waivers are treated like easements and go with the property when it’s sold.
In all likelihood, Mr. Pendergrass said, those neighbors would be compensated for allowing the waiver.
Mr. Bilby and other members of the Setback Committee pointed out noise levels will vary depending on terrain, weather, and atmospheric conditions, something they learned while visiting sites in Tug Hill, Madison, and other places.
“It’s a real echo chamber [here],” Mr. Bilby said. “It bounces off of everything. That’s [noise] going to be one of the biggest hurdles.”
April’s 1,500-foot recommendation reflects a trend toward greater setbacks, Mr. Thompson said at the time, in part because the towers themselves are getting taller.
When the question went out to Wednesday’s crowd, Reunion’s Sandy Gordon said the 1,500-foot setbacks mean it will require 225 acres to site one tower.
That, however, doesn’t mean 30 towers would require 6.700 acres; in Lowville, Maple Ridge’s 199 units occupy a footprint of 240 acres, Mr. Thompson said.