|
“WATERTOWN: Resident gets OK to build wind tower in yard”
The Republican American (CT)
May 25, 2007
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=24610&p=0
WATERTOWN -- Residents in the Farm Circle neighborhood soon will have a new addition to the landscape -- a 50-foot wind-powered turbine.
The Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-1 late Wednesday to approve a height variance that allows resident Kurt Karpavich to construct a monopole tower in his backyard on Farm Circle that will be topped with a three-bladed alternative power generator.
The fight to bring the turbine to town has attracted advocates from around the state, including fourth-grade students in Waterbury who wrote letters of support after a lesson about alternative energy. It also drew protest from neighbors who staunchly opposed the project. Lawn signs around town read, "Say no to the windmill."
About 60 people packed a hearing before Wednesday's vote. They offered passionate comments about the turbine, both for and against. Karpavich's wants to erect a roughly 50-foot tower, but needed a height variance from the board to build above the prescribed limit of 35 feet. He estimates that once the turbine is installed it will cut his electric bill in half in a way that doesn't negatively impact the environment.
The turbine is called a Skystream 3.7 and sits atop a roughly 43-foot pole. Wind spins three six-foot long fiberglass blades, each roughly six inches wide, that turn a generator similar to an alternator in a car, which then creates power.
Neighbors said they didn't have anything against wind power, but they didn't believe the backyard of a home was the place for it. They were concerned about potential noise it could generate and the possibility that it could reduce property values.
"Nobody here is against a windmill for a resource, but it has to be the proper setting, the proper acreage and there has to be proper regulations and that's where we stand," said Jacqueline Daddona, a neighbor of Karpavich.
Residents from neighboring towns voiced their support, as did students from the Taft School.
"To think that he is going to build this windmill in a way that's going to effect your life, your property and the way you look at things is ridiculous compared to the benefits that this precedent would set across the state and across the nation," said Kelly Urmston, 19, a senior at Taft.
Andy Kruse, co-founder of Southwest Windpower, the company that manufactures the turbine, traveled from Flagstaff, Ariz. to speak on Karpavich's behalf. Kruse said the company has shipped 600 units in the United States.
"We recognize there are challenges to get these in the ground," he said. "We see that the market is tremendous when you look at the issues facing us today."
Supporters said the project was larger than one man's fight to put a turbine in his backyard but rather was a part of creating a cleaner environment for the future.
Karpavich compared drumming up support for the project to running for political office and said he knew it would be something new when he filed his application.
"I couldn't believe it. I know we had great support, but the opposition group never grew," he said. "I just was overwhelmed. It's been a process of three months, but It's something we have to pursue."
Anyone who wants to appeal the decision will have 15 days after notice of the decision is posted in the newspaper, said Moosa Rafey, the assistant zoning enforcement and wetlands officer.
|
