Resort looks to bolster anti-turbine stance

Continued from Page 1 about opposing, are set to be more than 800-feet tall and visible from the resort’s coastline. The current plan is to complete the construction in two phases, with the first turbines spinning by 2026 and the last by 2028.

McGean said US Wind’s plan consists of more than 3,300 pages between the base document and appendices that he and his staff are not equipped to fully review and assess.

“It’s beyond my capabilities, beyond the staff’s capabilities,” McGean said.

He explained that it became apparent that officials needed to find a consultant with a specified level of expertise to review the document and prepare comments for the environ- mental assessment who has not worked for a wind company and would be completely unbiased.

A search turned up SLR, a full-service international environmental, engineering, planning, and consulting firm headquartered in England that McGean said has done a lot of work in oil and gas. He said company officials understand the federal bureau’s process.

And while the consultants will be unbiased, thus setting up the possibility that the research and findings may not support the city’s position, McGean expects they will be able to produce information about environmental and other impacts that previous studies have not mentioned.

For example, the horseshoe crab.

While the impact to right whales has been researched and serves as the catalyst for lawsuits against a similar project in Massachusetts, McGean said no research has been done to date on what the wind turbines could do to the local horseshoe crab population.

He said the consultants’ work could also produce information about the turbines’ potential effect on the local viewshed and fishing industry.

“Nobody is really holding these firms to some of this due diligence and this would be the way to do that,” McGean said of the reason for the study.

He added that if the information is not favorable to the city’s position, officials could decide not to share it.

Upon request from DeLuca, McGean also summarized the city’s position on the project Monday.

“While we support renewable energy, we support offshore wind, we only support it if it’s done responsibly,” McGean explained. “We are opposed to construction of any offshore wind turbines that are visible to our residents.”

Continued from Page 3 during the off season.

Essentially, a lack of parking requirements is fine for summer, as the housing projects would ideally accommodate J1 foreign students who do not have cars. However, people who drive and own cars may be living in the buildings in the fall, winter and spring.

The detail was changed during a council work session after members determined that leaving the code the way planning commissioners had proposed would not be much more desirable.

Council members debated the subject for a while Monday. The conversions included shutting down a motion DeLuca made to revert it back to the original version in a 5-2 vote, with both DeLuca and Councilman John Gehrig voting in favor of it. Gehrig also voted in favor of a preceeding subordinate motion that Councilman Peter Buas, who spearheaded the parking change that passed first reading, introduced.

Buas’ final motion to approve the new code also included some other minor changes, such as adding a requirement that all leases for projects cannot be any less than 30 days, and eliminating a line that states condo association members can approve employee housing in individual units upon owner request.

Council members also discussed enforcement of the ordinance Monday. While Gehrig expressed concerns about being able to adequately impose all of the regulations and details, planning and legal staff members assured they have enough manpower now to handle projects as they come up.