New owner pursuing Beekmantown wind project

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May 18, 2009

Penn Energy eyes 13 turbines from Windhorse

By JEFF MEYERS The Press Republican Fri May 14, 2010, 07:51 PM EDT

BEEKMANTOWN — New owners have taken over the reins for a proposed wind-turbine project in Beekmantown and have met with the town to show why they feel the project should move forward.

Penn Energy Trust, which first became involved as the land-purchasing agent for Windhorse Power in the summer of 2007, has bought sole control of the project and is attempting to move forward despite several setbacks the former company faced.

"The project is exactly the same," said Charles B. Howland, an attorney for the Pennsylvania-based company. "It's a small project with 13 turbines placed on approximately 800 acres of land."

Windhorse Power had faced stiff opposition from the West Beekmantown Neighborhood Association virtually from the beginning, but Penn Energy went forward with the purchase convinced that the overall plans are feasible.

"This could almost be considered a conservation project," said fellow attorney Kirk Mayland, who has extensive experience with environmental issues as a former lobbyist for Trout Unlimited.

"We are conserving 97 percent of the land while providing a viable energy source," he added, explaining that the 13 turbines and additional infrastructure will impact only 3 percent of the wooded property.

"It's a judgment call," Howland added. "What is visually better, 13 turbines in an otherwise wooded area or a new development on the property?"

The Beekmantown Wind Farm, which would sit on the ridge west of Rand Hill Road and south of Diamond Way, is just across the town line from the much larger Altona Wind Farm operated by Noble Environmental Power.

Although the turbines themselves would rise above the tree line, both attorneys insist that the ecological impact would be negligible.

"The forested canopy that covers the hill will remain there with the turbines," Howland said.

But the issue has moved beyond aesthetics. In June 2008, Beekmantown officials changed the wording in a zoning ordinance that now prohibits industrial-scale wind turbines within town lines.

Penn Energy believes its property is grandfathered in under the old zoning laws, but the Town Council has taken measures to prevent the project from moving forward.

In mid-March, the Town Council voted to revoke the Windhorse Power conditional-use permit, citing the town's new Wind Facility Law and stressing that Windhorse had not acted on its permit for two years.

Howland objected to that claim, citing several steps that have been taken to move the project forward, including the $1.5 million purchase of the property along with ongoing negotiations with New York State Electric & Gas and the New York Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's wholesale-electricity markets.

The Zoning Board of Appeals held a public meeting Friday night to listen to Penn Energy's argument.

"The question that evening was limited to the conditional-use permit," said Zoning Board Chair Janice Marchut Conrad, noting that the applicants needed to show "overt action" toward moving forward with the project within 180 days of the issuance of a permit.

"The board had questions, the hearing was open to the public, and the public made comment," she said. "The meeting was then adjourned until May 20, when the board will meet to consider the matter."

That meeting will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Beekmantown Town Hall.

E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com