From CBC news PEI
A couple from West Prince has proof from the government their property has dropped in value since wind turbines were put up near their home.
Promoters of wind farms have fought against the notion that wind farms lower property values, but Beverly and Errol Howard had their home in West Point reassessed in October, and it came back with a 10 per cent lower property value on the retirement home they built eight years ago.
Last summer, the Howards discovered the wind farm several kilometres up the road was expanding.
Beverly Howard told CBC News Monday there are now five new turbines within sight of their home, the closest about 500 metres away.
"If you're sitting out on your deck, they're noisy, if you're out gardening they're noisy," she said.
"We can't hear the surf anymore in the summertime; all we hear is windmills."
The Howards specifically asked for the reassessment in light of the new presence of the windmills. When they announced the result at a recent public meeting on the wind farm, Howard said environmental officials at the meeting were caught off guard.
"It was said to us — not by [Environment Minister] George Webster — but by someone else in the government, that we shouldn't be making false statements," said Howard.
"When they checked into it they found out it wasn't a false statement."
A spokesperson with the tax department said a handful of other residents living next to wind farms in West Prince also received lower assessments. Although the criteria for assessing property values doesn't specify turbines, the department felt the properties near windmills should be treated the same as properties near industrial areas.
Despite receiving the lower assessment, the Howards are asking the tax department to have another look, because they feel their home has dropped in value by more than 10 per cent.
10 comments:
Let me quote Glenn Schleede of Reston ,VA, an outspoken opponent of wind energy: " most anyone who owns property recognises that assessors are probably the LAST place one would go for reliable data on MARKET values of property". " If the property is not sold, noone knows the market value."
Mr. Schleede was denigrading a study of property values around wind farms using assessment data. Funny how anti-wind crusaders can use the same arguement to prove two opposite points. I guess they think we're not paying attention. All we really know from this feature is that the woman interviewed is now paying lower taxes.
I wonder how much less this lady would list her house for now? My guess is not a penny less than she would have a short while ago.
I seems to me that this type of fearmongering is more likely to negitively affect this woman's financial standing that any windfarm will. Surely if she was selling her house, no mention of this fall in value would be made to prospective buyers. She should, however, be encourged by studies from Austalia, England and the United States. In these jurisdictions, when actual sale prices were studied over a period of years, no evidence was found to indicate a negative effect on property values due to wind farm construction. These studies are easily accessable through Google.
Just to muddy the waters, we should all realise that the world economy is not only shakey, but unpredictable. Property values have probably peaked and we will all be lucky if our properties see only a 10% devaluation.
John McManus
The market value at a given time- ie: final selling price -of a residential property depends on what someone will pay for it.
Location,Location,Location!is the commonly quoted wisdom of the real estate trade.
Who would want to pay top dollar to live next to a noisy,health disrupting, "industrialized" rural development?
The answer is of course-John McManus
Unless you had plans to actually sell your house, property assessments from the Provincial Governement means very little.
It is interesting to note that houses for sale along the road where current power lines from windfarms run, have actually sold.
The couple in the article took approx 2-3 years to sell their former home, which was approx 60 miles from the closest turbine. Perhaps PEI just isn't the hot spot for real estate (other than shore front that outsiders are snatching up, and in a few years, will be washed out to sea anyway).
I would purchase a home that was within view of a windfarm vs a nuclear plant, a hog farm, or even a shopping mall. To each thier own.
What is the safe distance between living next to one and being within view of one?
Distance has already been determined by the Gulf Shore Association.
Remember the Anne Murray fiasco. She has some property miles from Irishtown Road. There is also a campground with cabins miles away whose owner was quite vocal before Cumberland Council.
Now that the facts don't fit : distance must be changed.
Folks all these comlaints must be seen for what they really are; mere delaying tactics. Because the problems aren't real but simply negotiating points they can be adandoned, ignored or modified at the whim of the anti environmentalist. This distance query by Anonymous is but one example.
John McManus
Mr.McManus
How close would you live to one of these?
I' m about 11 to 12 km. from Higgins Mt. I can see the turbines from my bedroom window. Rodney is a bit farther away, I have to walk down the road to see those turbines . On a clear day, I love seeing both sites when I'm walking my dogs. Not everybody is so lucky.
John McManus
....maybe they should set the distances to 11 or 12 km and everybody could be as lucky as you!
How many of the signers of "the petition" live within 11 km of Irishtown Road?
John McManus
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