GREENWOOD — The Greenwood Planning Board has approved construction of a 196-foot tower that will, over the course of three years, determine whether Long Mountain is a viable location for a wind project.
Calpine Wind Holdings of Houston, Texas, submitted an application for site-plan review to the board Nov. 21 for a meteorological tower and associated equipment to assess wind speed, direction and other factors.
The tower will go up on the eastern side of Long Mountain, about 1,000 feet west of Horseshoe Trail Lane on land owned by Weyerhaeuser Co. of Fairfield. The project site is not accessible by anything other than a skidder, and the application does not propose any new roads be built; all construction will make use of the already present skidder trails. The estimated cost of the project is $95,000, and Calpine hopes to begin construction in the winter of 2017.
The tower will consist of an 8- to 10-inch-diameter tubular pole, which will sit on a metal-base plate at ground level with a surface area of 7.7 square feet, supported by wires and anchors. The tower will support anemometers, instruments for measuring the speed of the wind; also, a wind vane, which shows the direction of the wind, a data logger and unspecified systems to divert wildlife.
Several Greenwood and Bethel residents attended the Planning Board meeting Monday to learn more about the project, and some protested because abutters were not notified of the project.
According to local resident Betsey Foster, the abutting land is owned by Larry Stifler and Mary McFadden of Brookline, Massachusetts, and they deserve to be notified of the project.
Board Vice Chairman Jim St. Germain said the couple’s property is not close enough to the project site to warrant notification. Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman said that because this was a “simple commercial permit for a temporary tower,” it does not require abutter notification.
Foster wanted it stated for the record that she believes the town of Greenwood has a duty to notify the abutting property owners.
“This is a travesty,” Foster said after the board unanimously approved the project.
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