There seems to be a misunderstanding about what is meant by property value.
There is the absolute dollars value of a property. There is irrefutable proof that one property sale worth $230,00 has fallen through directly because of the proposed wind energy project. This matter is now in the hands of the lawyers.
The only MLS listed property sale on the Gulf Shore since this project became known about sold at 30% less than the assessed value. Sales have been made elsewhere in the County, but not on the Shore.
There are at least seven property owners who have canceled or indefinitely postponed plans to build because of the project.
These numbers are the truth. If this happened anywhere else, not just in this area, there would be ans should be a public outcry. That is part of our complaint and our outcry.
The other, as important, parts of property value cannot be measured empirically.
This is the viewscapes, the peace and quiet and beauty.
There is the tradition - for multi generational residents and long time cottagers alike. There are some cottage areas where siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles have developed little family communities. People are retiring into these communities.
Visitors come to our homes and cottagers and rave about how delightful this area is. We take pride in that.
People like myself who have moved into the area did so for a reason. We were drawn to the area for these values.
I value the landscape, the neighbours, the wildlife, the farms, the warm waters and sandy beaches.
These are rarities in this ever busier 21st century life. They should be protected as they become more valuable.
If it is greedy of me to protect my lifestyle, so be it. Please do not accuse me or anyone else of greed just for wanting to protect what they have worked so hard for. No one anywhere, cottage country or not, would appreciate someone coming into their community and devalue their property.
We do not appreciate big money companies coming into our area, messing with our lifestyle, local economy and health, make a big bunch of money for themselves and leave.
That's greed, my friend.
David Suzuki agrees with us. Big time!
Oh, did I forget to mention that Canada’s greatest single environmentalist is opposed to this particular kind of project?
Dr Suzuki is very much for wind energy, although has concerns about bird mortality. What he very much opposes about them is when projects are in the hands of big money companies, financially benefiting very few. He opposes loss of lifestyle for any industrial project like this.
Pretty much our point of view too!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Turbine tourism??
The Pugwash Chamber of Commerce invited Clair Peers to talk to the group for yesterday’s luncheon meeting a the Pugwash Village Commission Hall..
Clair turned up with Charles Demond, who also spoke.
Both Charles and Clair were offered lunch (very yummy sandwiches, veggie tray etc) several times but they refused. It was paid for, so I don’t know why they didn’t eat with us. Instead, after our meeting they rushed over to Hidden Jewel and ate there, making themselves late for another meeting (at the same venue they had just been at) with Councilors Langille and Langille. Very odd.
They came across somewhat subdued and a little nervous.
Clair spoke first for a short while. He spoke about how he originally came from this area and would like to bring something back, by bringing us a wind farm.
He spoke about how agreement logistics are much simpler if very few land owners are involved. He also mentioned that he and Charles were not going to be at the EA meeting that evening.
[At the time I was annoyed about that, I had a ton more awkward questions for Charles, but it turned out just as well that he wasn't there that evening. People spoke more freely.]He told us about how NS Power has put out a “Request For Power” (RFP) for there to be 5% of power be generated by new renewable energy projects for the end of 2009 and 10% by 2013. When asked how many turbines it would take to generate 10% of
[Wind levels can suddenly drop, typically in early evening when load requirements peak. This fickle nature of wind means that NS Power cannot risk “brown outs” by using too many wind turbines.]
His project could be a one or two phase construction depending on what tax breaks he could get.
Charles talked about employment during construction.
[Most local people are over employed at the time of year he wants to construct, so most labour and equipment would have to be imported.]
If there was the “skill set” found locally, there could be three maintenance people after the project is completed.
[Wow!]
When asked how many other wind energy companies there are in NS, he didn’t give any answer. To most questions he said he didn’t want to say anything and be quoted.
[Look at that, I've quoted him anyway!]
He said the County could realize over $300,000 in taxes from his project.
[Paying large sums in Municipal taxes makes the bottom line a little more difficult. That makes the industry even more competitive and cut throat. Proponents will say or do just about anything to secure their projects.]
It turns out that the mast behind my place is only 60m. When this was explained that this was thus only half the height of a turbine plus rotor, there was an audible intake of breath from those in the room.
[This is too big and imposing.]
I reminded Charles that he had said to me at the November Open House, to a group of us outside Council chambers and yet again to the 150 or so at the last Open House that he didn’t want to be a bad neighbour and that if he wasn’t wanted he’d leave. I asked him what it would take to understand he wasn’t wanted, how many people constitute a majority? He didn’t answer.
He addressed the tourism angle by claiming that they really think tourists would be attracted to the turbines.
Yeah, maybe once.
We already have tourists. Destination tourists. People who come here and stay a while. Sometimes for a weekend or two, many for weeks or months at a time. Many retire here permanently. These people use and support our local businesses. It is their dollars that sustain our economy. We would rather not swap these very valuable people for a few day trippers. Thanks anyway.
They have the audacity to suggest we risk our incredibly important existing tourist, cottager, recreation and retirement industry for three maintenance jobs!! That would be IF we had the skill sets here. What an insult!
And don’t insult us further by suggesting what kind of questions we ask later on. Scared of the difficult questions? Certainly was pretty skippy about answering simple questions simply. We are not stupid. We can see what is going on.
What we do understand is that wind energy is a very competitive industry. There are way more wind energy companies out there proposing more power than NS Power wants or needs. They only need a couple of hundred turbines.
These are good projects. Pugwash/Gulf Shore is not a good project.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Density
We were told at the Cumberland County public hearing in April by AWPC and members of Council that a 1km set back would kill wind development. They told us that there would be nowhere left in Cumberland County for a wind turbine if the setback were any more than 500m.
How very strange then that Pictou and Antigonish Counties, with combined population densities more than twice that of Cumberland County, can support a 75 turbine project (recently proposed Glendhu project from Shear Wind) with no turbine any closer than 4km from a residence.
That's eight times further away than the set back for Cumberland County (with 46% the population density of Pictou County).
Someone has been trying to pull the wool over our eyes. At the Public Hearing there was no forum for discussion whereby any of the more spurious facts could be challenged.
Patently, there is more than enough room for turbines in this sparsely populated County. Why on earth do they have to be positioned so dangerously close to populations?
The Glendhu project would more than amply provide the renewable power NS Power is asking for for it's 2009 target. The local communities support the project. Land use is forestry - not tourism as it is in the Gulf Shore. Looks like a good location to me!
How very strange then that Pictou and Antigonish Counties, with combined population densities more than twice that of Cumberland County, can support a 75 turbine project (recently proposed Glendhu project from Shear Wind) with no turbine any closer than 4km from a residence.
That's eight times further away than the set back for Cumberland County (with 46% the population density of Pictou County).
Someone has been trying to pull the wool over our eyes. At the Public Hearing there was no forum for discussion whereby any of the more spurious facts could be challenged.
Patently, there is more than enough room for turbines in this sparsely populated County. Why on earth do they have to be positioned so dangerously close to populations?
The Glendhu project would more than amply provide the renewable power NS Power is asking for for it's 2009 target. The local communities support the project. Land use is forestry - not tourism as it is in the Gulf Shore. Looks like a good location to me!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Location, location, location
Recently, there was an information bulletin mailed out to the Pugwash area which may have introduced some new readers to this blog, so I will give summarize some of what we know so far and some of our objections to this particular plan.
Atlantic Wind Power Corporation (AWPC) believes it has found a good site for a 27 turbine wind "farm" at the Gulf Shore. Turbines could be positioned as close as 500m from a home.
Our position is: while there is a place for renewable resource energy generation, this particular location is not the appropriate one.
First of all, let's dispel this myth that this is a quiet, bucolic, pastoral farm. The word farm applies to a tract of land that is cultivated and/or tilled to grow a product which could be grain, beef, milk or chickens (for example).
Calling a multi-machine industrial power plant that uses up precious resources and land in its construction a farm is a loosely veiled attempt by the wind energy industry to try to make us believe that this is an innocuous installation that will quietly work in the background, not bothering anyone. It will bother the vast majority. Especially when our fragile local economy is affected.
It is an industrial installation that would permanently displace existing important industries - tourism and recreation. This is a target destination for cottagers and retirement home builders. They come here for the beauty, peace and quiet. They come to enjoy the warm waters and world class golf courses. They come because they like their neighbours. Their dollars are what sustain our local economy.
In an area such as this, where property owners have developed homes, cottages, rentals and recreational businesses deliberately in and because of this beautiful area, the prospect of their landscape and lifestyle becoming polluted by these noisy, huge behemoths is appalling.
People are already canceling or postponing development or building projects. Property sales in the area have halted.
As property development slows to a grinding halt, the most immediate effect on our economy is reduced or eliminated employment for carpenters, electricians, plumbers etc. Sales at the hardware stores go down. Then, without the usual seasonal income, trades people cannot afford to stay in the area, they move away. In the meanwhile as tourists and cottagers get tired of the swooshing, flickering turbines, they move on to quieter destinations. The Co-op, pharmacy, liquor store sales plummet. The hardware stores take even harder hits. Restaurants and gift shops shut down. And on it goes. As property prices reduce, taxes eventually would go down too. This area, up until the news of this wind power development came out, was the fastest growing part of the County, producing many millions of dollars in taxes. Can the County afford to lose this income?
This development could have far reaching effects to our economy for decades.
This is a worst case scenario. Can we afford to risk anything like this happening to our area?
Many of us have been shaking our heads wondering what on earth makes this area a good site for a wind energy project!
It is not as if the province was plugged full of wind turbines already. This is a populated area. What on earth makes this a good site?
Well, of course, it's like everything else, it comes down to money.
What makes it a good site are factors that make it cheap to develop. It's a cheap site to use because there's a power transmission line nearby and it's fairly windy. Apparently the local people and their economy don't count.
If you look at a decent wind map, the best land-based sites for wind are islands, points of land, peninsulas and mountain ridges.
The very best wind is out to sea, which is where the Europeans are increasingly developing. This is partly because the technology has caught up with offshore developments but also because residents are becoming increasing unhappy about land based installations.
So if mountain ridges are a better site, why not go out to the Cobequids? Not only are they windier, there's transmission lines running through them already and there are very few people to be bothered. We haven't quite worked out the answer to that one. Maybe the properties out there have all been spoken for to other wind energy companies. Maybe AWPC doesn't want to pony up for branch lines to the existing transmission lines.
It's a cut throat business out there in the wind energy business. New companies are cropping up all the time. There is a lot of money to be made in a business that is highly politicized.
If AWPC's project went ahead, it would bring a transmission line down the Gulf Shore.
Other wind energy companies are already circling round properties further down the Shore like so many hyenas preying on weakened property owners who may want or be persuaded to get in on the action. And why wouldn't they? If there are already turbines blighting the landscape, why not lease their land too? These machines could be marching down the Shore to Fox Harbour, taking the transmission line with them. I have seen wind maps for the area and Smith Point (Fox Harbour), Mullins Point (North Wallace) and Malagash Point are all excellent candidates for wind energy.
All they lack is a transmission line.
Atlantic Wind Power Corporation (AWPC) believes it has found a good site for a 27 turbine wind "farm" at the Gulf Shore. Turbines could be positioned as close as 500m from a home.
Our position is: while there is a place for renewable resource energy generation, this particular location is not the appropriate one.
First of all, let's dispel this myth that this is a quiet, bucolic, pastoral farm. The word farm applies to a tract of land that is cultivated and/or tilled to grow a product which could be grain, beef, milk or chickens (for example).
Calling a multi-machine industrial power plant that uses up precious resources and land in its construction a farm is a loosely veiled attempt by the wind energy industry to try to make us believe that this is an innocuous installation that will quietly work in the background, not bothering anyone. It will bother the vast majority. Especially when our fragile local economy is affected.
It is an industrial installation that would permanently displace existing important industries - tourism and recreation. This is a target destination for cottagers and retirement home builders. They come here for the beauty, peace and quiet. They come to enjoy the warm waters and world class golf courses. They come because they like their neighbours. Their dollars are what sustain our local economy.
In an area such as this, where property owners have developed homes, cottages, rentals and recreational businesses deliberately in and because of this beautiful area, the prospect of their landscape and lifestyle becoming polluted by these noisy, huge behemoths is appalling.
People are already canceling or postponing development or building projects. Property sales in the area have halted.
As property development slows to a grinding halt, the most immediate effect on our economy is reduced or eliminated employment for carpenters, electricians, plumbers etc. Sales at the hardware stores go down. Then, without the usual seasonal income, trades people cannot afford to stay in the area, they move away. In the meanwhile as tourists and cottagers get tired of the swooshing, flickering turbines, they move on to quieter destinations. The Co-op, pharmacy, liquor store sales plummet. The hardware stores take even harder hits. Restaurants and gift shops shut down. And on it goes. As property prices reduce, taxes eventually would go down too. This area, up until the news of this wind power development came out, was the fastest growing part of the County, producing many millions of dollars in taxes. Can the County afford to lose this income?
This development could have far reaching effects to our economy for decades.
This is a worst case scenario. Can we afford to risk anything like this happening to our area?
~~~~~~
Many of us have been shaking our heads wondering what on earth makes this area a good site for a wind energy project!
It is not as if the province was plugged full of wind turbines already. This is a populated area. What on earth makes this a good site?
Well, of course, it's like everything else, it comes down to money.
What makes it a good site are factors that make it cheap to develop. It's a cheap site to use because there's a power transmission line nearby and it's fairly windy. Apparently the local people and their economy don't count.
If you look at a decent wind map, the best land-based sites for wind are islands, points of land, peninsulas and mountain ridges.
The very best wind is out to sea, which is where the Europeans are increasingly developing. This is partly because the technology has caught up with offshore developments but also because residents are becoming increasing unhappy about land based installations.
So if mountain ridges are a better site, why not go out to the Cobequids? Not only are they windier, there's transmission lines running through them already and there are very few people to be bothered. We haven't quite worked out the answer to that one. Maybe the properties out there have all been spoken for to other wind energy companies. Maybe AWPC doesn't want to pony up for branch lines to the existing transmission lines.
It's a cut throat business out there in the wind energy business. New companies are cropping up all the time. There is a lot of money to be made in a business that is highly politicized.
If AWPC's project went ahead, it would bring a transmission line down the Gulf Shore.
Other wind energy companies are already circling round properties further down the Shore like so many hyenas preying on weakened property owners who may want or be persuaded to get in on the action. And why wouldn't they? If there are already turbines blighting the landscape, why not lease their land too? These machines could be marching down the Shore to Fox Harbour, taking the transmission line with them. I have seen wind maps for the area and Smith Point (Fox Harbour), Mullins Point (North Wallace) and Malagash Point are all excellent candidates for wind energy.
All they lack is a transmission line.
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