Monday, September 11, 2006

Steve Trude letter to the Cohocton Town Board

September 11, 2006

Cohocton Town Board
15 South Main Street
Cohocton New York 14826

Dear Supervisor Zigenfus and Cohocton Town Councilmen:

It is apparent with changing of different size wind turbines, the setback for a 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and a 3.0 MW units, a different formula and new draft environmental impact statement is needed to determine placement and setbacks. It will be necessary to define a logical setback due to:
1) height, 2) blade size, (windwake) and 3) decibel level.

Adjusting the adequate setbacks will be necessary to give assurance to cover health and safety issues to protect the public and adjacent home and land owners.

With new blade designs, an updated study is in order to determine performance on each different turbine model. This new study should be done by Bagdon Environmental in conjunction with an independent company on the cost benefit analysis for 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 MW units before the Cohocton Planning Board can make educated recommendations to the Cohocton Town Board for new law.

Both developers, UPC and Empire State Wind Energy should provide the exact specifications for the industrial turbines intended for their projects. Then and only then can the Town of Cohocton draft a meaningful industrial wind turbine law.

Putting adequate setbacks into law will help alleviate future possible litigation for property values, wind rights for adjacent property owners, noise issues and health and safety issues.

Sincerely,

Stephen H. Trude – President CWW

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