Well let's start out with a welcome back to The Fairhaven Neighborhood News. Its two week absence and some of the articles in the "return edition" highlight just why there is still a place in this world for print media, and the functions and importance of a local weekly, in addition to a daily paper.
More detailed coverage of meetings, more meetings covered, not to mention the "special events" stuff you will get at best a blurb about in the daily. At a cost of $0.00 to the reading public, most definitely worth the price.
Good piece on the Board of Health meeting. I am not going to get into issue of the turbines today. Okay who am I kidding, I am.
If every meeting to deal with the planning board's attempt to draft a new siting by-law is going to disintegrate into a a debate over the existing turbines, opponents' criticisms over the present rough draft are going to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
While problems real or perceived (and there are both) from the existing turbines are relevant to preparing a siting code provision, shutting down the existing turbines are not. While from a purely political perspective, one cannot fault attempts to hijack meetings in an attempt to garner public attention and media coverage for one's cause, such continued and repeated attempts may very well damage if not destroy the attempt to fashion a stronger siting bylaw/code provision.
The sad reality on this matter is that the only solid legal standard pertaining to noise generated by turbines, noise of any kind, is the one being used by the state in the ongoing sound study. Going forward, one can propose a different standard for new turbines, but legally you will be faced with a near impossible task of imposing a stricter standard than existed at the time the existing turbines were erected.
The only reason I say near impossible, is there is an outside chance that with strict state or federal regulations one might be able to actually do something. On the local level, as one Board of Health member put it some time ago when a citizen complained about certain waterfront operations, the existing business is grandfathered locally.
Those same liberal progressives that one hears about having been given a mandate in recent elections and the same elected officials who champion green energy and who continue to push for and receive the subsidies and tax breaks, not not mention tweak and amend laws and regulations, which enable the wind industry to survive.
As the Planning Board Chairman very correctly put it in a letter to the Board of Health Chairman:
"I must remind you at this time that any pending complaints or legal proceedings by interested parties should not be confused with the drafting of this new bylaw by anyone".
It has become an inescapable conclusion that there are those who intend to utilize the procedure for adopting a new siting bylaw to fight the battle to shut down the existing turbines without regard to cost of hampering the siting matter for any future proposals.
The Fairhaven Neighborhood News posted a copy of the above mention letter from the Planning Board Chairman. I would suggest everyone read it. I would suggest everyone pay heed to the cautions. I would then suggest that everyone look to what can be accomplished through the proposed siting standard, and accept what cannot be done through this process.
Election news: really nothing further to note at this point. I will be checking the candidate book periodically and will update you on contested races as they develop.
Notes: There was an article in The Advocate noting that the plaintiffs will not be appealing the judge's decision in the Wind Turbine case.
A note for Town Meeting Members and candidates: If you were elected to a one year term last April, you need to make sure you turn in the paper that you should have received from the Town Clerk to get on the ballot this April. If you want to run, you need to take out papers!
As of yesterday afternoon there was still only one person who has taken out papers to run for Town Meeting.
Enough for today. Have a safe on.
Those same liberal progressives that one hears about having been given a mandate in recent elections and the same elected officials who champion green energy and who continue to push for and receive the subsidies and tax breaks, not not mention tweak and amend laws and regulations, which enable the wind industry to survive.
As the Planning Board Chairman very correctly put it in a letter to the Board of Health Chairman:
"I must remind you at this time that any pending complaints or legal proceedings by interested parties should not be confused with the drafting of this new bylaw by anyone".
It has become an inescapable conclusion that there are those who intend to utilize the procedure for adopting a new siting bylaw to fight the battle to shut down the existing turbines without regard to cost of hampering the siting matter for any future proposals.
The Fairhaven Neighborhood News posted a copy of the above mention letter from the Planning Board Chairman. I would suggest everyone read it. I would suggest everyone pay heed to the cautions. I would then suggest that everyone look to what can be accomplished through the proposed siting standard, and accept what cannot be done through this process.
Election news: really nothing further to note at this point. I will be checking the candidate book periodically and will update you on contested races as they develop.
Notes: There was an article in The Advocate noting that the plaintiffs will not be appealing the judge's decision in the Wind Turbine case.
A note for Town Meeting Members and candidates: If you were elected to a one year term last April, you need to make sure you turn in the paper that you should have received from the Town Clerk to get on the ballot this April. If you want to run, you need to take out papers!
As of yesterday afternoon there was still only one person who has taken out papers to run for Town Meeting.
Enough for today. Have a safe on.
“The only reason I say near impossible, is there is an outside chance that with strict state or federal regulations one might be able to actually do something. On the local level, as one Board of Health member put it some time ago when a citizen complained about certain waterfront operations, the existing business is grandfathered locally.”
ReplyDeleteI agree. This has come up over the years. It has resurfaced over the last year.
As your readers are very well informed and are aware, uses are governed in the Town of Fairhaven under §198-16 Fairhaven Use Regulation Schedule. “Uses” not listed are prohibited. “Uses” begun before the state allowed the town to regulate “Uses” are grandfathered, or if the town later modified the use, properly termed “non-conforming use”, and provided the activity is continuous, with no breaks or period of discontinuance. By grandfathered means the use is currently listed as N (excluded or prohibited) in the Use Regulation Schedule, but is allowed to continue with conditions.
When you cannot find, in another communities zoning, a use regulation table, it is because they have not adopted one. When you do not adopt a use regulation table, that community cannot prohibit certain uses and therefore, in my opinion, cannot protect its inhabitants. It also would invite “use variances”, which are prohibited in Fairhaven. I am sure I am not 100% correct because there are so many case laws on this subject in Massachusetts that no one can ever rest assured in an opinion.
It should not be confused with certain violations of current accepted EPA, DEP or OSHA regulations. Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) was widely used in the manufacturing of electrical equipment, as a dielectric, on the New Bedford waterfront and then installed in every residential neighborhood’s power generation equipment across America. That product currently can no longer be grandfathered in the United States, though I could be wrong. If a product violates current established protections it may be allowed to exist for a time, such as in antique automobile air emissions.
The Fairhaven waterfront is listed as Industrial District, which assumes some activities listed in the use regulation schedule. Lawfully prohibited listed products are to protect the public and employees. In what manner uses or products are reduced, prohibited, allowed or ended is provided for by the general courts.