A new bylaw governing construction and location of wind turbines in Annapolis County could curtail economic development, says a Bridgetown businessman.
"The worry is that it will restrict wind farm development to an area of the county that is unpopulated and has no usefulness for that purpose," said Louis Falls, a bookstore owner and publisher of a local weekly newsletter.
Last week, county council passed final reading of an interim wind turbine bylaw that will allow development on South Mountain only.
The bylaw was designed to allow council a year to study the issue of wind turbines before allowing development throughout the county.
To date, there have been 13 building permits taken out by two developers to build wind farms on North Mountain, which has been determined to be the best location for wind turbines.
"It sounded like an exciting sort of development for Bridgetown that would directly benefit us with jobs and revenue and tax income," Falls said about the proposed developments.
"It’s been a struggle for most of the business here over the last number of years. We’ve been working to try to reverse the trend of outflow and attract more people to town."
He said the new bylaw appears to some residents to be a "moratorium" on wind farms.
"The South Mountain is considered unsuitable for any kind of wind farm development anyway, so no one will be applying for that," Falls said.
"We don’t understand why the county didn’t develop a bylaw similar to other municipalities, which details setbacks and other conditions developers would have to meet."
The interim bylaw could allow some development but requires developers to go to council to apply for an amendment, triggering a public consultation process.
Falls said the lengthy and complicated process of having to go through an elected council and public meeting process may deter developers from even applying. He said the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities has studied the issue of wind farms and provided guidelines.
"So it doesn’t seem that anything will be accomplished by council studying the issue. Annapolis County may be bypassed for any possible development."
There is a proposed wind farm development near the Hampton Mountain Road above Bridgetown on North Mountain. Renewable Energy Developers wants to build a 12-turbine farm there.
"We have someone who wants to bring economic development to the county, but what it looks like to us is that the county was trying to put a stop to it."
Annapolis County Warden Peter Newton said the new interim by-law is not meant to prohibit wind farm development but to allow council time to develop a bylaw that is appropriate for the county and ensure residents have input into the decisions.
"The development of this interim bylaw, which states that council will have to review (it) within one year, gives us time to research the issue further and create a bylaw that is appropriate for this county," Newton said in a news release.
"Council has already passed a motion to consider the creation of development zones on the North Mountain."
Newton said a series of public meetings will be held to allow input from residents. A new bylaw will be developed after council studies the issue and hears from the public, he said.
The first public meeting is scheduled for the Bridgetown Regional High School gymnasium April 14 at 7 p.m.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1174477.html
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Interestingly, this exact story ran again the next day with a new headline and byline time stamp (see bellow) . The version above engendered some interesting comments which I would be surprised to see reproduced for today's press.
Business owner: Wind rules too strict
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